Mission: Find the Source of the Madness!
by The Ebon Blade
Summary: Based in the world of the anime about 40 years after where the anime is now. It is the story of a newly recruited Top Ranger and his first mission he receives as a top Ranger.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"Class, will you please sit down?" Ms. April announces to the rowdy class of aspiring Pokémon Rangers. "Everyone, sit down!"

The class sits down in their desk in the large classroom. The students become silent and Ms. April stands up from her desk.

"As you know, today is the day where the Pokémon Ranger from the Vientown ranger base was supposed to come. However, he got called to a very important mission so we are having an unexpected but pleasant surprise." Ms. April pauses in annoyance as she hears whispers of unrest in the class. "Silence! Now… Instead of the Vientown ranger, we have been graced with the presence of a top ranger."

"A top ranger?!" One of the male students yells in disbelief. "If we can't get a normal ranger how the heck did we get a top ranger?!"

"I was about to get to that… You see this top ranger graduated from this school ten years ago. He was a student of mine in the first year of my teaching and he decided that he was going to visit the school today."

"Sweet! I've got so many questions for him!" A female student excitedly screeches. The class begins to rumble with talking and excitement.

"Class! Silence!" Ms. April yells. The class quiets down. "Now… I would like to introduce Chase Range."

A Pokémon Ranger with a Lucario following him walks into the room from the doors behind the students. He shakes hands with Ms. April and turns to the students.

"Hey kids! As Ms. April said, my name is Chase Range but you can call me Chase." Chase smiles out at the class and the class stares back amazed. "Ok… So does anyone have any questions?" One of the male students shoots his hand up. "Yes?"

"So… ummm… if you're a top ranger does that mean you have a fine styler?"

"Yes it does." Chase raises his arm and shows the class the styler strapped to his arm. The class whispers excitedly. Another arm shoots up, this time from a female student. "How about you?" Chase points at the girl.

"Is that Lucario your partner Pokémon?"

"Yup!" The Lucario leans up against the wall and closes his eyes. "He's kind of shy." A female student raises her hand.

"What age did you graduate from the school?"

"I graduated from the Almia Ranger School at age 15." Another hand rises but this time more cautiously. "Yes?" Chase looks at another female student.

"Ummm… are you in love?" The girl blushes and the class snicker a little. Chase smiles and nods. "Really? You can really have time for relationships as a ranger?"

"Of course you can… Maybe you're busy but that does not stop you from finding true love." Chase says wisely. The girl smiles at him. Another hand goes up from a male student.

"What age did you become a top ranger?"

"I became a top ranger a few months after my 18th birthday." Chase responds. The same hand stays up and Chase nods at him.

"What was your most intense mission as a top ranger?"

"Most intense mission eh?" Chase turns to Ms. April. "This is a pretty long story. Do you mind?"

"Not at all Chase, we have all day! I think it would be great for these kids to hear about one of your missions." Ms. April sits down in her desk and listens.

"Alright, it was the first mission I received as a top ranger. It isn't like most missions that rangers receive… Let me see if I can remember… Well I remember that Professor Hastings was showing me my fine styler in his lab…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1- Mission Start

The room I was sitting in was filled with seemingly frazzled people in lab coats. Most of the large room was white boxes with beeping flickering buttons cluttering up the surface of the box. To tell the truth I had absolutely no idea what any of it did which made me pretty nervous about meeting Professor Hastings and Captain Commander Jack Walker, the leader of all Pokémon Rangers. Riolu could sense my unrest and kept trying to comfort me by nudging up against my legs. I noticed my reflection on the side of a shiny metal box. Although normally I would never do this, I checked to make sure I looked good. I remember I had about ear length shaggy brown hair, lime green eyes, and slightly tan skin. I was content with my facial appearance so I checked my clothes (which really didn't make any sense because all Rangers wore the same thing). My ranger uniform was in complete order; my black T-shirt fit perfectly on my body, the red jacket looked natural over the shirt, my shorts reached just past my knees, and my belt had all my equipment on it except my styler since I had to turn that in at the front desk.

"I think I'm ready buddy." I half smiled half shuddered at Riolu. "How are you doing?" Riolu never talked but he always transmitted his feelings through his aura control, which we had been working on lately and he has gotten pretty good. I still remember the impact of every aura communication he's ever done. This one he told me that I was way too nervous.

"So, you must be Chase Range!" A fierce and quick voice startled Riolu ad I and we sprung up from the chair.

"Uhhh… yeah." A tall and old man in a lab coat stood in front of me. He had a snow white beard and long shaggy hair. He was about three feet taller then me and I was about six feet tall!

"I'm Professor Hastings, please follow me." The man quickly turned away and strode out of the room. I outstretched my arm down towards Riolu and he jumped onto my shoulder.

It wasn't easy catching up with him. By the time we left the room he was far down the hallway. It was a busy hallway with a bunch of rangers rushing around so we could barely keep up with him.

"What's the rush Professor?" I asked sounding unbelievably dumb.

"There isn't any reason to sit around and introduce ourselves. It's just a waste time and life is short so not even a second should be wasted." He said very severely. This guy really intimidated me. "As a newly recruited top ranger you should always remember and follow this guideline: time cannot be saved, it can only be spent… Understand?"

"Sure!" I squealed and looked down in embarrassment. Eighteen and I still got scared of people like him… really it was kind of pathetic.

"Good."

Before I had realized it, we were standing in front of an elevator. Professor Hastings pulled a key card out of his pocket and swiftly swiped it in the panel next to the door. The door opened and we walked inside. It was really cool because the elevator walls, floor, and ceiling were all completely made out of glass. Professor Hastings pressed the top button in the elevator and I looked down to see us rising very quickly. Suddenly the elevator was flooded with light and, for a moment, I was blinded. When my vision returned I noticed we were going up a long glass tube to a small platform in the sky. I looked out from the glass elevator to see all of Almia beneath my feet.

"Wow… that's really awesome." I scanned the ground for all the major land marks. I noticed the Altru Inc. tower where Kellyn, another top Ranger, defeated Team Dim Sun and saved all of Almia from destruction almost forty years ago. Then I spotted the Pokémon Ranger School. "This brings back a lot of memories." However, the memories were short lived because, moments later, Almia disappeared from beneath my feet and all I could see was dark steel walls.

The elevator stopped and we walked into a small dark room with two rank nine rangers standing motionless on either sides of a small blue platform. They both nodded to Professor Hastings and returned to their motionless stances. The rangers were considerably older then me and much buffer than I. I couldn't see their eyes or hair because they were wearing black helmets and black sunglasses. I was a bit freaked out by this but I was a top ranger now and had to be brave. Professor Hastings stepped onto the platform and beckoned me to follow. I glanced at Riolu on my shoulder and saw that he was without fear. So I boldly stepped onto the platform with a heroic stride. Until that is… I discovered it was a warp tile. I felt the light consume me and felt like my molecules had been ripped apart for a moment then rapidly reconstructed. Basically, it felt like I was caught in a vicious tornado and being pulled in every direction. My distress put aside, I stumbled a bit at the point of landing but that was all.

I looked up it amazement. We were in a dome of some sort. Beneath my feet was a LCD screen with a map of the globe on it. Random messages, alerts, and descriptions of situations were sprawled out over the screen. The screen covered the entire room. The ceiling and walls of the dome were all lit up with screens as well, displaying all different sorts of information that any ranger would ever need to know. In the center of the room were three Operators sitting at consoles that seemed to be made of light; next to those Operators stood Professor Hastings and a very old man. I scurried over to them and Riolu stood up on my shoulder looking confident but for some reason had an air of serious respect to his stance.

"Chase Range, I would like to introduce you to the Captain Commander of the Pokémon Rangers… Jack Walker." Professor Hastings said with out looking at me.

I glanced over at the short old man. He was hunched over and was holding a cane. He had a lot of wrinkles on his face and had very dull blonde hair sticking out from the sides of his head. The rest of his head was completely bald; he had no mustache, no beard, and absolutely no hair on the top of his head. His body was boney and skinny and it seemed like he could barely stand. I couldn't help letting out a chuckle. Professor Hastings shot a horrifying glare at me and Riolu smacked me in the head. Captain Commander Jack Walker just looked at me and laughed.

"It's alright Jared. Let the boy laugh, I'm quite a sight after all." Jack Walker said with a strange wisdom in his voice.

"I'm really sorry sir… I don't know what came over me." I managed to say, still chuckling a little. Riolu was not pleased, he clearly sensed a very powerful aura from this man and couldn't help but respect him with every filament of his soul.

"What's not to laugh at? Who'd ever expect an old man like me to be the Captain Commander of the Pokémon Rangers?" Jack Walker said still laughing.

"I mean no disrespect but can we please hurry this up. I have much to do today." Professor Hastings said impatiently.

"Yes of course. Chase Range you have shown excellent performance in the responsibilities and aspects of the Pokémon Ranger. There for I now grant you the title of Top Ranger Number 15."

Jack Walker inched over to me with his cane and pulled a small brown package out of his jacket. He handed it to me and I opened the lid. Inside was a small rectangular styler that had a strap for my arm. It had a pristine shine to it and the screen glimmered in the light. I immediately strapped it to my arm and admired it. Riolu looked down at it in approval and excitedly jumped to the ground. He looked up to me hopefully and I nodded down at him. We performed the signature victory stance we had prepared for the Fine Styler. We both faced the same direction and performed two straight punches, then Riolu jumped onto my shoulder and we both flexed our muscles in a victorious stance.

"Very good! I see you have a Ranger Stance already!" Jack Walker said laughing. "I remember when I used to do that almost every day!" I smiled at him and he nodded in approval back at me.

"Yes well, less important things put aside, we have your first mission for you… Rythmi, would you please pull up the globe?" Professor Hastings asked the middle aged female operator next to him.

"Yes Professor." The operator punched a few of the holographic keys and a massive hologram of a globe appeared in front of my eyes.

"As you know, this our world." Professor Hastings began to explain. I looked up at the revolving hologram. I noticed Almia, Fiore, Orre, Kanto (where I spent most of my career as a Pokémon Ranger), Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. The rest of the regions looked unfamiliar to me. "The Pokémon Rangers protect the world from natural disaster and those who would seek to harm the balance between humans and Pokémon. Most of the time everything is coordinated from the regional Ranger Union, however, for the few missions that require global services we have what we are currently standing in."

"What might that be?" I asked curious to what Professor Hastings was getting at.

"The Pokémon Ranger Global Air Base… headquarters of all Ranger activities." I was awestruck and Riolu stirred a little bit with the new knowledge that we were ten thousand feet above the ground. He had never been keen on heights.

"Do top rangers normally get missions that require this base?!" I asked a little afraid of what I was getting my self into.

"No, it is a rare instance indeed. I believe the last mission that the air base was specifically used for was Captain Commander Jack Walker's mission to save the Manaphy egg from Captain Phantom over forty years ago." Professor Hastings explained. I glanced over at the Captain Commander; he had a happy and wise look on his face. "The reason we are using it for this mission is because we may be searching all over the world."

"Ummm… searching for what?" I nervously asked.

"Recently, the Pokémon researcher posted aboard the air base went missing along with an experimental Pokédex and styler he had been designing. His name is Zephyr Folorum. He's been a researcher for over forty years. The Pokédex he was designing was meant to detect any Pokémon on the log and display its current position. He was also working on a styler that would release all of the Pokémon's potential power during the capture. He was nearly completed with both when he disappeared with out a trace."

"So you want me to find him?"

"Yes. We have an area ranger in each region searching for him as well so you will be receiving information from all regions. We will be coordinating the operation from the air base and feeding you information we get from the Ranger bases." Professor Hastings concluded.

"I accept the mission but just out of curiosity; why not assign this mission to a more experienced ranger? I just became a top ranger; wouldn't it be better to assign it to someone who has been in the game longer then I?" I realized I sounded like a coward but I was way too curious to care.

"All the other top rangers are on important missions as well. Besides, I heard great things form the ranger base in Kanto about you and decided it would be a good idea for you to take up this mission." Jack Walker cut in. I grinned with a bit of pride in my heart. Riolu stood up on my shoulder and made a very confident pose.

"That's the spirit old buddy!" I made the same pose as he did. I turned to Professor Hastings and Jack Walker. "So where do I start?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2- New Island

My excitement was mounting and it was becoming harder to wait. The operator named Rythmi was inserting my data into the floating holographic computer. I took a good look at her; she seemed to be around 40 or 45, she had huge puffy long blonde hair, and her eyes were aqua blue. She wore a very official and high rank looking operator uniform. It was a white dress that reached down to just above the knees, it had a blue strip of color down the middle all the way to the bottom, and it had patches and badges all over the front. One in particular stood out above the rest: "Most Reliable Operator". She was definitely one of the best.

"Alright, Chase Range… age 18… has been a ranger for just over three years… registered partner Pokémon is a Riolu… first mission assigned. Looks like you're set. If I could just have your styler for a moment I will register it." Rythmi said in a kind but all business voice. I handed her my styler and she placed it in a small clear panel on the hologram. Surprisingly, the styler floated in the light making me wonder what the desktop was made of. I couldn't resist reaching over to touch it. However, just as I was about to put my hand in the light, my hand was smacked away by Professor Hastings.

"Do not touch. We don't have time to repair it if it breaks." Professor Hastings snapped.

"I just wanted to see what it was made of…" I said a little ashamed and embarrassed.

"If you were so curious you should've have asked." Professor Hastings said abruptly but he seemed slightly less angry, possibly because I had a slight amount of interest in the technology. "The console itself is made of a sensor sensitive holo-projector. However, in the need of examining something or registering stylers, it produces something close to force shields that create a perimeter imitating a surface." With that Professor Hastings turned and walked away swiftly.

"Wow, if that guy keeps going at that pace he's going to age really fast." I said jokingly to Rythmi.

"Professor Hastings is 87 and still in perfect physical condition." Rythmi stated with the same kind but business like voice.

"What?! He's 87 years old?!" Needless to say, I was pretty shocked.

"Yes, in fact he is older then Captain Commander Jack Walker who is only 71." Rythmi continued. "However, even though the Captain Commander has aged far faster, I would not under estimate him." I glanced over at the old man staring at the globe examining something with Professor Hastings. "He has been through more in his lifetime then most of the regions' Elite Four members."

I felt the same respect for him that Riolu had felt earlier and Riolu, who was still on my shoulder, felt it and gave me an approving rush of aura. Also, I felt sorry and slightly ashamed that I had giggled at him earlier.

"Congratulations, you're styler has been registered and you have been inputted into our database as a Top Ranger." Rythmi handed me the styler and I strapped it to my arm as the screen flickered on.

"Thank you."

"Are we all finished here?" Professor Hastings said hastily as he walked over to us. Rythmi nodded and returned to what ever work she was doing earlier. "Good, Chase, please come with me over here."

I walked over to the floating globe hologram and noticed a marker pointing to a very small island just off of the western Kanto coast.

"The marked island is called New Island. Three days ago, we were directly above this island when Professor Zephyr Folorum went missing. We thought you might want to start your mission there to see if there are any clues." Professor Hastings explained.

"That sounds like a good idea, but I had another idea that might help as well." I said staring at the marker.

"And that is?"

"Riolu can use aura almost like a scent. However, we aren't going to find his aura on stuff he has touched or even his living space. What we need is something that was close to him, or someone who was close to him."

"Professor Folorum didn't have many possessions and he really did not connect with anyone… he was all about his work." Jack Walker said almost sadly. "Although… there may be one item of his that would work."

He began walking over to the wall. Professor Hastings and I hurried with him. There was a small panel on the wall and the Captain Commander entered in a code on the number bar. A crack in the shape of a vertical rectangle appeared on the wall and opened up into a passage way. We stepped out of the dome into a long hallway that was completely white like the hallway in a ship. The doors all had key pads just like the one that the Captain Commander had just used. We walked down the hall a ways until we came upon a door with the words "Professor Zephyr Folorum" on the upper part of the door way. Jack Walker entered in a code on the panel and the door slid open. We walked into a very bland, dark, and gloomy room. The only furniture was a bed, dresser, and a night stand with a picture frame on it. I walked over to the picture frame and examined it. It had the lower half of a picture on it. The half of the picture that was there showed a little kid with short brown hair and light blue eyes smiling brightly at the camera with two figures in lab coats behind him. However, I could not see the upper parts of the two people behind the child because they were to tall to be seen with the pictured ripped as it was.

"That picture is what I meant." Jack Walker stated. "It was his only prized possession."

"Has it always been ripped in half?" I asked while still examining the picture.

"Yes."

"Alright, let's give it a try… Riolu try and detect an aura from this picture." Riolu jumped down onto the night stand and kneeled in front of the picture frame. He closed his eyes and put his palms in front of the picture frame. A small blue orb that looked like luminescent rushing water formed around the picture frame and it lit up the dark room. Riolu almost immediately broke focus and the orb disappeared. He looked up to me and nodded. "Looks like we've got it."

"Excellent, then you shall depart immediately." Professor Hastings turned away and started walking down the hallway towards the dome again. "Follow me to the hangar bay."

"Hangar bay?" I blurted out confused.

"Don't worry. Your about to have a little fun, that's all." Jack Walker said smiling and chuckling a little.

I shrugged and went to catch up with Professor Hastings. By the time I had caught up with him he was already entering in the code to open a door. The door slid open and we walked inside. It was an amazing sight; instead of seeing flying contraptions like you would normally see in a hangar bay, there was hundreds of different huge and strong looking bird Pokémon. The ceiling had holes that allowed the flying Pokémon to go in and out of the hangar and the hangar itself had many cubbies along the walls with resting places for the Pokémon. The room was massive, almost a football field in length and width. In the center of the floor, there was what appeared to be a massive trap door.

"This place is amazing!" I gasped as I stared in awe at the awesome scene.

"Indeed, you will need a fast Pokémon for we are quite a ways away from New Island at this point." Professor Hastings said with a bit of awe in his own voice. It was clear that, even to him, this was an amazing sight. Professor Hastings put his fingers in his mouth as if he was about to whistle… and he did. My ears felt pierced at the volume and shriek of his whistle. I clasped my hands over my ears in pain. A pidgeot flew down to us and landed in front of Professor Hastings. I had never seen such a massive pidgeot. "This is our fastest pidgeot; I would hang on very tightly while flying on his back."

The pidgeot beckoned me to hop on his back. I started to walk over but Riolu jumped down off of my shoulder.

"Riolu, what's wrong?" I looked down at him and saw the most horrified look on his face. "Oh, I see." I bent down and petted him on his head. "Don't worry Riolu; I'll hang on to you as tight as I can and you can close your eyes for the whole flight." Riolu loosened up a bit but still looked horrified. I picked him up and sat him down on the pidgeot's back. I then hopped on behind him and unhitched my belt. I wrapped the belt around Riolu and around my torso and secured it tightly. "How about that buddy?" Riolu moved around a bit to see how secure it was and nervously nodded up at me in confirmation.

"Alright then, it appears you are all set." Professor Hastings said as he entered in a code on the panel and the trap door in the floor opened up. A gust of wind hit us as it opened. "Good luck."

With that, the pidgeot flew up into the air of the hangar and streaked down through the trap door. I was astounded by the sight; there was nothing but ocean for miles and miles. It was like a completely flat field of blue that continued past the horizon. The sun shined brightly down on the water from the cloudless sky making the ocean shimmer. I turned my head backwards to see the air base and was astounded by that sight as well. The dome we were in was a small bump on top of a massive structure of propellers, wings, and giant engines. I looked down at Riolu on my chest and saw that his fear had been erased and replaced with amazement. The pidgeot flew down to just above the surface of the water and skimmed upon the surface for a few moments. I looked down and saw my reflection zipping along with us on the water's surface. The pidgeot then returned to a higher altitude. Just as this happened I felt a buzzing on my right arm. I looked to see something on the screen of my styler.

"This is Rythmi; do you copy?" The operator said through the styler.

"Yeah, I hear you. What's up?" I responded.

"You will be approaching New Island soon."

"Alright, thanks for the update." The screen turned dark and I looked towards the horizon in the direction we were going. A small, oddly shaped mass of land was appearing in the horizon slowly. It looked almost like a giant mushroom with lush green grass growing on top and nothing but wet and eroded rocks creating the outer walls of the mushroom shaped island. "Wow, that's one weird rock formation."

We started to descend quickly and steeply and I was a bit afraid of crashing, but the pidgeot pulled up at the last second and landed very softly on the edge of a massive cliff. I hopped off the pidgeot and unhooked Riolu from my torso; then put my belt back in place where it belongs.

"Riolu, use your aura sense to see if the Professor's aura has a trail here." Riolu closed its eyes and focused. It started to run towards the middle of the large island. I chased after it. "Keep focused Riolu, don't miss a thing." Although I didn't see anything that Riolu could focus on. The only thing that was on the island was grass, and there was a lot of it. However, Riolu really seemed focused on something. We came to the center of the island and Riolu stopped. He opened his eyes and pointed at the ground. I looked at where he was pointing and saw that there was something underneath the tall grass. "Alright Riolu, use Shadow Claw to cut the grass!" Riolu lunged towards the tall grass and a black aura in the shape of a claw appeared around his arm. He swept at the grass causing it to be cut down immediately. A small square stone was impeded into the ground underneath the grass. I knelt down to examine it more closely. There was an engraving on it.

"**Here lies Christopher and Selena Folorum."**

"**Their dedication to science and the study of Pokémon was matched only by their love for their only son."**

"Folorum? Like Zephyr Folorum?" I whispered to myself. "Riolu, are you absolutely sure this has the Professor's aura on it?" Riolu nodded. "Well I guess it could just be a coincidence but I'm not sure."

"Hey kid, what do you think you're doing here?" I heard a voice from behind me. I stood up and swirled around; two fair skinned men dressed in black suits were walking toward me. They both were wearing black sunglasses and neither had any hair. One of them was much larger then the other and both looked pretty buff.

"I'm investigating the disappearance of an important Professor… and I'm not a kid! I'm a Top Ranger!" I said annoyed that they called me a kid.

"A Top Ranger!" The smaller man gasped mockingly. "Oh no, I'm shaking in my boots! Listen kid, I wouldn't stick around here for to long. Something might happen to you."

"Don't belittle me! I should be asking you two what YOU are doing here!" I was getting a little angry. I really didn't like being looked down upon.

"So you've got a bit of an attitude. I think I can help you with that." The man came right up next to me and motioned to punch me.

"Stop this; this isn't why we are here." The bigger man said with a completely emotionless tone. He grabbed the smaller man and threw him over his shoulder.

"Hey dude! Quit it! Put me down! Let me teach this kid a lesson!" The smaller man squirmed and squirmed but couldn't move under the bigger man's grip.

"Both of you stop! I, Chase Range, 15th Top Ranger of the Ranger Union command you to halt. You are under arrest and will be submitted for questioning."

The bigger man stopped and let the smaller man down. However, when the smaller man attempted to rush at me the bigger man stopped him with just his arm.

"I'm afraid we do not have time for questioning, so I will end your desire to question me right now." The bigger man pulled out a Pokéball from the inside of his suit coat. "I'll give you just one chance to leave without me having to hurt you."

"Not going to happen! Riolu are you ready?" Riolu jumped in front of me.

"Fine then." The man threw his Pokéball into the air and, in a flash of white light, a Wigglytuff appeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3- Those with No Name

Riolu leapt into the air without command. It knew exactly what to do. It descended upon Wigglytuff with a flurry of punches, Bullet Punch. However, Wigglytuff appeared to have taken virtually no damage. Riolu continued his onslaught with an incredibly swift jab to the Wigglytuff's stomach, Mach Punch. Once again, Wigglytuff seemed un-fazed. I shook my disbelief at the strength of this Wigglytuff and leapt into action.

"Capture on!" I pointed my fist at Wigglytuff and pressed the release button on my styler. The glowing top burst out from the socket on my wrist and flew towards Wigglytuff, leaving a bright trail of white light. I outstretched my pointer and middle finger and swung my arm around rapidly in an oval shape; a similar light that followed the top followed my fingers. The top responded to my arm's action and spun around Wigglytuff with incredible speed creating a ring of light revolving around Wigglytuff. Wigglytuff continued to stand their without movement while this happened, just as he had against Riolu's attacks. "That's it! Capture complete!"

The ring condensed into Wigglytuff and, for a moment, Wigglytuff glowed bright white. Wigglytuff stood there, still without movement.

"Alright Wigglytuff, use Sing on your trainer and his friend!" I yelled in victory. However, Wigglytuff didn't budge. It continued to stair blankly at Riolu. "Huh? Wigglytuff, use Sing!" It did not move.

"That won't work on my Pokémon." The bigger man said. "Wigglytuff, Hyper Beam." Wigglytuff opened its mouth widely and a yellow orb formed at the opening and shot a thick ray of glowing yellow energy at Riolu.

"Riolu!" Riolu jumped and the Hyper Beam barely missed. "Riolu, it must have incredible defense, but maybe it doesn't have that much resistance to special attacks!"

Riolu looked at my nervously but I still nodded. Riolu nodded back and put his hands in front of him. A small blue orb began to form on its palms. However, just as it was getting to the normal size of an Aura Sphere it dissipated.

"So close…" I groaned and Riolu looked down in shame. "Riolu, you were great! You just need a little more practice."

"This is a touching moment, but I'm afraid I should end this." The bigger man cut in. "Wigglytuff, use Sing and follow it up with Mega Punch." Wigglytuff began to sing with a lovely sound. Riolu began to look drowsy and started to sway.

"Riolu, you've got to stay awake to dodge!" Riolu couldn't hear me though. He fell to the ground completely asleep. "Riolu!" Wigglytuff began running towards the sleeping Riolu with its fist reared to punch.

"Scizor, use Protect!" A Scizor dropped down from the air in between Riolu and Wigglytuff. A green orb appeared around it and Riolu and the Mega Punch was stopped in its tracks. I looked up to see a Pidgeot coming in for a landing from the air. It was much smaller then the Pidgeot I used to get here. When the Pidgeot was about ten feet from the ground, a very attractive girl jumped off of its back onto the ground. She was wearing long, slightly baggy cargo pants and had an orange tang top on. Her skin was about the same as mine, fair skinned but maybe slightly tanner. Her hair was red and in a pony tail that reached down to her mid back; her eyes were dark brown and full of vigor. She looked to be about 17 or 18 and, of course, the first thing I looked at was her very nice and round chest.

"Damn…" I whispered to myself, stunned.

"I'm not sure what's going on here but I'd say this battle is over. Riolu clearly is tired and, none the less, asleep." She glared at the man. "Wouldn't you say this is a good place to stop the match?"

"Stay out of this little girl; this is between the Ranger and me." The big man said with an intimidating voice.

"I don't think so. Your Wigglytuff is clearly much stronger then this Riolu which isn't a very fair match. I'm not going to let you over do it because you feel that what it means to be a trainer is to do as much damage as you can."

"Insolent girl." The man said with the same intimidating voice. "Wigglytuff, show her what happens when she messes with us." Wigglytuff lunged at Scizor with another Mega Punch.

"Use Protect again!" Scizor created another orb around itself.

"Feint." Wigglytuff smacked the orb with its other hand and the orb disappeared; Wigglytuff followed through with its Mega Punch. Scizor, with a look of shock on his face, was hit hard in its abdomen and knocked backwards. It impacted the girl and both of them fell on their backs; Scizor was completely unconscious.

"Scizor!" The girl yelled as she reached underneath her for Scizor's Pokéball. She returned it and I ran over to her.

"Are you alright?" I kneeled down to her in concern.

"I think so… who are these guys? That Wigglytuff is really strong." She gritted her teeth as she put her hands onto her mid abdomen.

"You look hurt."

"I just had the wind knocked out of me." She moved a little then yelped in pain, still clutching her abdomen.

"Scizor falling on you might've broken a rib." I said examining the place she was clutching.

"Ok, that is enough." The man said. "Wigglytuff, teach them both a lesson with Hyper Beam." Wigglytuff turned toward us and opened its mouth, charging another orb of energy. However, just as it was about to fire, Riolu came out of no where and punched Wigglytuff in the face. The Hyper Beam was fired to the left of us. Riolu had woken up!

"Tell Riolu to use another attack quickly! Does it know any really strong fighting moves?"

"Well yeah, Focus Punch, but… Why?"

"You Rangers know nothing about battling; Hyper Beam forces the Pokémon to recharge! Riolu, use Focus Punch quickly!" Riolu looked surprised at the girl's command but I nodded to it. He pulled his arm back and a small white aura surrounded his fist; he thrust his fist toward Wigglytuff once more and impacted its face. Wigglytuff was sent flying but had no change in its expression. It landed on the ground and skidded for a few moments.

"Did it work?" I asked dumbly as I looked at the Wigglytuff.

"Of course it did! Wigglytuff is weak against Fighting type moves!"

"Well I know that! This Wigglytuff is clearly strong though!"

"It shouldn't matter, that kind of hit would knock out any Normal type!"

"Don't count on that little missy." The man cut into our argument. Wigglytuff had gotten up and had the same expression as before. Riolu looked shocked and so did the girl. The man chuckled cruelly. "You drop down all heroic like and then fail. You think you are so cool? Wigglytuff, blow them to kingdom come with…" He was cut off by a loud beeping. He looked at his wrist and pressed a button on some sort of watch. "Yes sir, we will be there immediately." He looked up. "I'm afraid we have to cut the fun a little short. Don't worry though, next time I'll make sure I have plenty of time to kick your asses."

He returned Wigglytuff to its Pokéball and the two men turned and walked away.

"Wait!" I yelled angrily. "Who are you? Team Rocket? Team Dim Sun?"

The smaller man burst out in a mocking laugh. "Hear that? He's comparing us to them!" They stopped and the smaller man turned around. "We don't have a name kid, and we are certainly not pathetic like those idiots." With that, they walked to the edge of the cliff and jumped off. Moments later I heard the roar of a helicopter and saw it ascend from behind the cliff and fly off into the air.

Annoyed and angry, I returned my attention to the girl who was watching the helicopter fly away with an equally annoyed and angry look on her face. Riolu walked over next to me and looked at the girl with sad eyes. I shook my anger and annoyance and looked at the spot of injury on the girl.

"I need you to take your hand off of the place where it hurts." I calmly told the girl. She did as she was told and I looked at the spot. Luckily, there was no blood which meant that if she had broken a rib, it had not penetrated the skin. "Alright, would you lift your shirt up just over the part where you feel the pain?"

She looked at me with an "are you serious?" look. I looked back into her eyes with the utmost seriousness and she nodded. Slowly and reluctantly she pulled her shirt just barely above the spot. I sighed; there was a big black spot where she was clutching.

"Damn… definitely internal bleeding and possibly a fracture of the ribs." As I said this she jerked and coughed.

"I can't have that! The Pokémon League is next week!" As she said this she yelped in pain again and grabbed the bruised spot.

"Don't move! You'll only make it worse! We need to get to a hospital and fast." She tried to sit up but couldn't. "Here, I'll help you." I gently put my arm behind her neck and my other arm underneath her knees. I slowly moved her into a near sitting position. She relaxed her muscles a little and seemed to be more comfortable. "Riolu go get the Pidgeot." Riolu ran towards the edge of the cliff where Pidgeot was now sleeping. "So, what's your name?" I asked trying to keep her mind off of the pain.

"Kaleen… Kaleen Terrance."

"I'm Chase Range. So you are a Pokémon trainer?"

"Yeah… I've been one for seven years now."

"That's a long time! I've only been a ranger for three years."

"You're a Top Ranger though. I noticed because of your fine styler. That's pretty impressive."

"Well… it's not all that impressive" Although I did like that complement. Riolu returned and the Pidgeot flew over and landed next to us. "We need to get you to a hospital, but we can't allow you to move too much." _How am I going to do this?_ I thought to myself.

"It's alright; I can fly on my Pidgeot." She said starting to move but the moment she did she yelped again and went back to clutching her injury.

"Not going to happen. It's too dangerous. You'd best return Pidgeot to its Pokéball." She pouted a little in frustration and did as she was told. "Once we get you on Pidgeot it won't be hard to hold you still but it's getting up there that is the problem." Pidgeot bent down until its back was straight. Riolu jumped up there and grabbed tightly onto the Pidgeot's long feathers from the back of its head. That gave me an idea. "Do you have any Psychic Pokémon?"

"Yeah, I have a Gardevoir." I smirked… I felt like such a genius.

"Alright, I'll set you down softly and then get on Pidgeot's back. Then you release your Gardevoir and tell it to use Psychic to levitate you into my arms. That way you won't have to move your body to get onto Pidgeot's back." She frowned a little, probably because she felt like an idiot for having to do this.

"Fine…" As she said that I gently set her down and quickly hopped onto the Pidgeot. She pulled out a Pokéball and, in a flash of light, a Gardevoir appeared. "Gardevoir use Psychic to float me into his arms. Please do not let me move my body at all."

Gardevoir closed its eyes and began to glow a light blue. Kaleen also began to glow blue and slowly rose into the air and floated over into my arms. I grasped her tightly as she returned Gardevoir into its Pokéball.

"Hold on tight." I said. She put one arm around my back and the other around my stomach and held tightly. "Let's go Pidgeot! To the mainland!" Pidgeot flapped its wings once and skyrocketed into the air at mach two speeds. Kaleen screamed as we took off and gripped even harder. Riolu also let out a small yelp of fear and jumped at me, clasping itself around my head. I guess he wasn't completely free of his fear of heights yet.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4- Report In

With Pidgeot's incredible speed, we reached the main land in only fifteen minutes. It was pretty cool to see the port from that high up in the sky. It looked like a sleek strip of metal on the side of a huge mass of green. I saw many boats floating on top of the water near the port and a huge cruise liner leaving the harbor. As we began to descend I noticed that the "small strip of metal" was full of skyscrapers. This was a big port city. It had five light houses along the coast as well. I held tightly onto Kaleen, who had long since passed out, trying to keep her steady but it was definitely difficult with the speed we were going. Riolu also was holding on tight… to the top of my head. I could feel him shaking in fear. We began descending and I scanned the area for a hospital. I saw a tall skyscraper with hundreds of windows on each side and a giant red cross on the side.

"Perfect. Pidgeot, land in front of the building with the big red cross!" I yelled as I pointed towards the hospital.

Pidgeot looked at the building then began to dive. I could feel Riolu's grip tightening and I tightened my grip on Kaleen. We landed right in front of the front doors to the hospital.

"Riolu, go and get the attention of one of the staff members!" Riolu, still shaking, jumped down and ran into the hospital. People were staring at us and shocked with the sheer size of the pidgeot, which stood a solid five feet above even the tallest of men that stared at it. After about two minutes, Riolu came running out with a young female nurse with brown hair tied up in a bun and dressed in pink scrubs.

"Is this your Riolu?" she asked me sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, I asked it to go get the attention of someone in the hospital. This girl needs help." I replied a little curious of why she was annoyed with Riolu.

"Well that's all well and good, but your Riolu could've gotten our attention without shooting our chief of medicine with an Aura Sphere." She said placing her hands on her hips.

"Riolu! Why'd you do that?!" I yelled in surprise that Riolu would do that. "Never mind, tell me later."

"I'll get a stretcher." The nurse walked briskly into the hospital. A mere moment later she returned with a rolling bed that had the most complicated looking support system in the world. "Be sure not to move her to much. We don't know what kind of injury she has."

"I understand, but I think it might be a broken rib." The nurse nodded and pulled the stretcher over next to the pidgeot. Pidgeot bent down as low as it could and the nurse and I lifted Kaleen, carefully, onto the stretcher. When she was safely on the stretcher her eyes opened a little.

"Where am I?" She looked around a little but.

"You're right outside the hospital in the Kanto National Port." The nurse answered with the kindest voice I've ever heard.

"What?" She looked around and spotted me. "Oh, so it wasn't a dream."

"Afraid not…" I responded scratching my head.

"Well in that case, would you take my Pokémon to the Pokémon Center?" She pulled six shrunken Pokéballs out of her pocket.

"Sure." I took the Pokéballs and slid them into my pocket. "Ms. Nurse Person." The nurse looked at me, annoyed that I'd called her that. "Would you please have someone call the Pokémon Center when you're done helping Kaleen?"

"I will." She said in a much colder voice then when she was talking to Kaleen.

"Thanks."

With that I started walking down the street. I looked back to see the nurse roll Kaleen into the hospital. The pidgeot, knowing its mission was complete, took off with incredible speed into the air back to the air base. Riolu ran after me as he said goodbye (and good riddance) to the pidgeot. He jumped up onto my shoulder. We were walking down a very busy street with cars, bikes, and people moving in every direction. I saw a ton of shops and businesses lining the streets. Every once in a while I'd see a stray Meowth or a Drifloon blowing in the wind. I walked with Riolu for about fifteen minutes just examining my surroundings before I realized I had no idea where I was going. Before I knew it, I was lost. I had walked onto a street with a large amount of food services.

"Hey Riolu, how about we get something to eat before we ask for directions to the Pokémon Center?" Riolu nodded fiercely as I heard its stomach growl. I laughed and walked into the closest restaurant.

"Hello there! What can I get for you today son?" An old and large man with a faint Italian accent yelled from behind a counter.

"What've you got to offer?" I asked in response.

"Anything Italian!" He yelled back.

"Well Riolu? What do you think?" Riolu sent me an aura message. "Oh! You want me to bring out Kaleen's Pokémon. They must be hungry to!" I pulled the six small Pokéballs out of my pocket. "Hey old man! Do you mind if I bring out some Pokémon?"

"Not at all, just keep them quiet and if any other customers come in you should put them away!" That was the first time I noticed that the restaurant was completely empty other then me and Riolu.

"Alright then!" I pressed the buttons on the Pokéballs and released the six Pokémon. A Scizor, Gardevior, Pidgeot, Absol, Luxray, and Meganium appeared. "Hi everybody!" The Pokémon looked around confused wondering where their trainer was. "Your trainer, Kaleen, is in the hospital. She asked me to bring you to the Pokémon Center but I got lost and decided to stop for some grub." The Pokémon all looked at me skeptically. However, just at that moment, the Italian man came up to us with a huge plate of Pokémon food.

"Eat up!" Both Riolu and Kaleen's Pokémon looked at the chef in awe. They dove in instantly. "What about you kid? Or should I call you Ranger?"

"You can call me Chase. How's your spaghetti?" I asked with a strange craving for spaghetti.

"Only the best in all of Kanto! I'll be right back!" He rushed back into his kitchen.

I looked around and thought this restaurant was funny. Most Italian restaurants I've been to were fancy and expensive but this place was like a diner on a country road. It definitely didn't fit the stereotypical fancy Italian restaurant. I sat down at a small table next to the Pokémon enjoying their food. Suddenly, I heard a beeping sound from my wrist. I looked at the styler to see Rythmi's face on it.

"Chase? Chase Range, do you hear me?" She repeatedly said through the speakers.

"Yeah I'm here."

"Do you have anything to report?"

"Actually yes I do…" I told her about the head stone, the guys in the suits, how my styler didn't work on Wigglytuff, and about how much of Professor Zephyr Folorum's aura was on the island.

"Interesting, I will tell all of this to the Captain Commander and Professor Hastings. Did you say people in black suits?"

"Yeah."

"That's odd. We've had reports of people similar to that description lurking around the Indigo Plateau."

"Really? Did they have black glasses and no hair?"

"According to this report yes."

"Well it looks like that's where I'm off to next then."

"It would appear that way. I will submit your report. Good job and good luck." With that the screen went black.

"Here you go! The best spaghetti in Kanto!" The old man came up from behind me and placed the plate in front of me.

"Thanks a lot!" I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. I shuffled around in my wallet and brought out a twenty dollar bill. "This enough?"

"Indeed it is! I'll get you your change right away!"

"Thanks!" I looked down at my plate of spaghetti and dove right in. I was a bit of a pig actually. By the time I was done, my face was riddled with sauce. Riolu and the other Pokémon laughed at me and the old man laughed as well. I returned the Pokémon to their Pokéballs and walked out of the restaurant. "Thanks old man! That was great spaghetti!" He waved to me as I walked out.

It was getting dark. I saw a map of the city at the corner of the street and walked over to it. I got the directions to the Pokémon Center, which was really far away, and began my trek. It took me almost an hour to get to the Pokémon Center and it was dark before I got there. The lights on the streets lit up and I could hear music and people partying the night away in local night clubs. When I finally got to the Pokémon Center, it was pitch black out and the windows of the center were all lit up. I looked at the clock as I walked into the building, it read 10:15 p.m. Wow I lost track of time.

"You!" I heard someone yell angrily as I walked into the Pokémon Center. "I've been worried sick!"

I looked up to see Kaleen standing there with her hands on her hips right in front of me.

"Kaleen?! You're already moving around?!" I yelped surprised not only with her recovery speed but her anger as well.

"The doctor said that it was close but I barely avoided a broken rib. However, I had some seriously bad internal bleeding. So they told me they couldn't do anything for me but that I only needed rest anyways. I asked if I could get a ride to the Pokémon Center to meet you here but then I end up waiting for two damn hours! What've you been doing?!" She was really ticked off. Her stare made my confidence shrink and I began to stutter in fear.

"I… Uhh… Well I got lost… and we got dinner… nice Italian guy… heh…" That was it; she was going to kill me. My career as a Top Ranger was about to end just as it was beginning.

"Alright." She seemed calmed down a bit but still very annoyed. We started walking over to the counter where Nurse Joy was standing. I looked around and saw all of the other trainers in the big white room staring at us; some were chuckling, some were annoyed at our yelling, and others were just freaked out by the anger that girl could produce.

"You know, it was pretty nice of you to worry about me the way you did." I said smugly to Kaleen. She whirled her head towards me in rage but kept her voice down.

"I wasn't worried about you! I was worried about my Pokémon!" She steamed in an angered whisper.

"You certainly didn't say anything about your Pokémon in that little fit you just had." I was really having fun annoying her, whether it was the smart thing to do or not. I saw her face go red as we stopped at the desk.

"Hello there. How might I help you?" The nurse Joy asked happily. I pulled out the six Pokéballs from my pocket and set them with Riolu on the counter.

"All these Pokémon need a good check up and a good rest." Riolu looked at me with sad and fearful eyes. That's another thing Riolu was scared of: Pokémon Centers. In fact, the only time he wasn't afraid was when I was.

"Of course. Would you two love birds like a room as well?" She asked us smiling happily still.

"Love birds?!" Kaleen and I screamed in unison. "No way! We aren't love birds!

"Oh I see." Nurse Joy winked at us.

"No seriously, I just met this guy!"

"Yeah, I just met her."

"Well I for one believe in love at first sight." Nurse Joy teased us as she walked away with Kaleen's Pokéballs and Riolu, who still had that scared look on his face.

"The nerve of her, thinking we are girlfriend and boyfriend." Kaleen said angrily as she stormed off to the trainer lounge.

"Yeah! Seriously!" I also steamed as I walked in the opposite direction to the bathrooms, which seemed pointless because I didn't need to go to the bathroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5- On the Road

Riolu and I spent the night outside. As a ranger, I did this a lot. There weren't any trees behind the Pokémon Center; just a huge field of grass that expanded incredibly far. The Pokémon Center was on the very edge of the city. We always loved looking at the stars but, because we were right next to a big city, we couldn't see very many stars on that night. The lights of the city prevented it. None the less, we slept very well.

I was awoken by a feeling of being crushed. My eyes shot open as my rib cage felt like it was being pressed into the ground. A Meganium had body slammed me and was smiling down at me. Riolu was awoken by the sound of the slam and jumped up.

"Well you're a friendly Pokémon." I managed to whisper as I was being crushed under the massive weight.

It must've been about noon when I woke because Meganium's head was blocking out the sun which was at the pinnacle of the sky. It was a pretty cloudy day.

"A Top Ranger sleeping until noon? How pathetic." I heard a clearly annoyed female voice. Riolu looked up and ran over to where the voice was coming from. "Meganium, maybe you should let the guy breathe."

Meganium got off of me and allowed me to sit up, still having trouble breathing. I looked over to see Riolu in the arms of Kaleen with a big smile on his face.

"It seems Meganium has taken a liking to you." Kaleen said with a slightly kinder but none the less cold voice. "I guess it appreciates you treating it to dinner yesterday."

"No problem Meganium." I said happily to Meganium, who moved over to me and started rubbing its head on my arm. I turned my head towards Kaleen. "You look… good…" I said sarcastically; and for good reason. Her hair was out of her ponytail and completely uncombed. Her eyes were blood shot and the rings around her eyes told me that she hadn't gotten any sleep last night. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Humph… no." She started to pet Riolu on the head and Riolu closed its eyes and rested in her arms. "Can't say the same for you."

"Yeah, I got a great night's sleep." I said cheerfully but Kaleen just stared at me in annoyance. "Uhh… is something wrong?"

"No!" She snapped at me, causing Riolu to jump out of her arms in fear. She looked down at him as he cowered behind my leg. "Oh, I'm sorry Riolu. I didn't mean to scare you." She said sweetly. Riolu moved slowly form behind my leg and nodded at her.

Meganium stopped rubbing against my arm and looked down at Riolu. They started talking in their language like they were old friends.

"Looks like our Pokémon are getting to be pretty good friends." I commented to Kaleen.

"I guess, my Pokémon said they really liked you last night… I really shouldn't have yelled at you." Kaleen was talking in a much more calm and regretful tone. "I should've trusted you more; you are a ranger after all."

"Hey, it's no problem! I would've responded in the same way. We got lost so it took us a while to get to the Pokémon Center."

"Ok." Kaleen gave me a quick smile, the first one she'd given me so far.

"So are you going to be able to compete in that Pokémon League you were walking about?" I asked watching Riolu and Meganium play together.

"Yeah, I just have to take it easy. Where are you off to now?"

"Well, my operator told me that other people like the guy's we encountered on New Island were seen at a place called Indigo Plateau. So that's where I'm heading next. Where ever that may be…" I said realizing that I don't even know how to get there.

"Indigo Plateau?!" Kaleen gasped. "That's where the Pokémon League is being held!" I looked at her raising my eyebrow.

"Really? So you're heading there to?"

"Yes; you really didn't know what the Indigo Plateau was?"

"Nope, I spent my career as a ranger almost exclusively down in Fuchsia City. I did a lot in the Safari Zone."

"Even so, it's one of the most famous land marks in all of Kanto. It's hard to believe you've never heard of it!"

"Why is it so famous?"

"The Indigo Plateau has held the Pokémon League for almost 100 years now and has held the Grand Festival for almost 40 years!"

"Oh, I see. Sounds like a pretty cool place."

"It is! It's right in the middle of a valley with a massive lake next to it. It's beautiful!"

"You're pretty excited aren't you? You sound like you just want to go there for the sights, not the Pokémon League."

"No way, I can't wait until the Pokémon League! I'm going to win and challenge the Kanto Elite Four." Kaleen hesitated before speaking again. "Well… if you don't know the way, then maybe we can go together."

"Well uhh… I guess so… I mean… it would be better then just getting lost and having to ask for directions!" I could feel the blood rushing to my face. I turned bright red but I noticed that Kaleen was also hiding her face as she blushed.

"Ok. Then let's go!" She swiftly started walking towards the road leading away from the Pokémon Center. She held up a Pokéball and a red light appeared and shot towards Meganium. "Meganium, we're leaving!" Meganium turned into red light and was sucked into the Pokéball.

"Riolu, let's go!" I yelled towards Riolu who ran over and hopped up on my shoulder.

We started walking away from the city on a road that seemed to stretch on for miles. There was a very awkward silence between us for what seemed to be days but was only like 25 minutes.

"So why were you flying over New Island?" I finally said with a bit of a nervous voice.

"Huh? Oh, well you see, I was trying to find a Wailord." She replied.

"A Wailord? What for?"

"I've never seen one and I heard that they roam the waters around New Island. So I decided I would try and find one before the Pokémon League, but we all saw how well that went." Kaleen let out a forced laugh. "So what were you doing on New Island?"

"I'm on a mission. We are looking for a missing professor and he disappeared while the air ship was over New Island."

"Air ship?"

"Oh that's right; you've probably never seen the Ranger Air Ship. Never mind then."

"What ever." She said putting her hands behind her head and resting her neck as she walked. This made her body look much curvier then normal and I caught myself staring. As she turned her head towards me I quickly looked away as if I was looking at the grass fields.

"So based on your knowledge, how long do you think it'll take us to get to the Indigo Plateau?" I asked trying to take her focus off of me.

"Well if we stop to sleep it'll take us about two days and considering that I didn't get any sleep last night we will be stopping." She glared at me. I had no idea why every time she mentioned her inability to sleep she would glare at me or get angry.

We walked for the rest of the day along that treeless field. Riolu kept shifting between walking, to my shoulder, and to Kaleen's arms. We didn't see any other person or Pokémon for the entire walk so we just talked about random stuff. Kaleen told me how she was born in Blackthorn City in the Johto region and how her first Pokémon was Chikorita who had long since evolved into Meganium. I told her about my years in the academy and some of my missions as a ranger.

"So how did you meet Riolu?" Kaleen asked me as we conversed about our pasts.

"Oh! Riolu and I? Well let's see. It was my last year in the academy. On one of my days without any classes I went for a walk. I was walking across a bridge when I saw a couple of guys laughing and kicking around a very small Riolu. I ran over and got between them and Riolu but they just tried to kick me along with it. I yelled at them to stop torturing the Riolu but they just laughed. I asked them why they would ever do that. One of the guys said that the Riolu was his but it couldn't use Aura Sphere so he thought it was useless. His next words angered me that I punched him in the face and knocked him out."

"What did he say?" Kaleen asked looking sadly down at Riolu who was walking with his head down, staring at the ground.

"He said 'There's only one use for a weak Pokémon: to laugh at as they get pummeled.' I got so angry that I couldn't control myself. I ended up beating the crap out of all of them. They were definitely not as tough as they wanted people to think. After the kids had run away yelling 'you'll regret this kid!', I picked up the unconscious Riolu and ran back to the school. The school nurse did what she could for it and then one of the teachers drove it to the nearby Pokémon Center."

"Those kinds of people make me so angry! Pokémon aren't slaves, they are our friends!" Kaleen vented angrily. "So, did they ever make you regret it?"

"Regret it? No. However they did call the school and tell the principal what I'd done. I ended up getting in a lot of trouble for that scrape. I got suspended for an entire week." I laughed and Kaleen looked at me with utter disbelief.

"That's totally not fair! They were tormenting a Pokémon; why would you get in trouble for saving a Pokémon?!"

"The principal had no choice. There were regulations that had to be obeyed. I was lucky I wasn't expelled." It felt like Kaleen was looking at me with a newfound respect and it felt good. "Anyways, I wasn't allowed to have a partner Pokémon at that time but Riolu started to spend its time right outside the gate of the school. I'd go see it almost every day. The day that I graduated, he immediately became my partner Pokémon and we've been together ever since."

"Wow, you really have history with each other."

"Yup." I looked down at Riolu who was still staring at the ground.

We continued walking and talking for a few more hours. Gradually, trees started to appear around us until it felt like we were in a big forest. It was almost completely dark when we came upon a small pond. The water was very clear and clean and the surface of the water shimmered from the light of the moon through the leaves of the trees.

"This is a pretty spot. Why don't we stop here for tonight?" Kaleen said sounding pretty tired.

"Sounds alright to me." I walked over to the edge of the pond and sat down.

I looked out over the pond and noticed a lot of different water Pokémon. Poliwags, Goldeens, Magikarps, and many other water Pokémon were swimming peacefully in the pond. I looked around in the trees and could see nests of Pidgeys and Hoothoots in the holes of the trees. Caterpies and Weedles lined many of the tree trunks and I thought I saw a Butterfree fly above the trees. Kaleen released her Pokémon and they started to get comfortable. Riolu ran over by the other Pokémon and lied down next to Meganium who was really happy to see Riolu. Pidgeot flew up and landed on the branch of a tree, Scizor sat down and leaned up against a tree trunk, Gardevoir started to levitate as it fell asleep, and Absol lied down on the ground next to Luxray. They were all asleep almost immediately. Kaleen came over and sat down next to me.

"This is a pretty beautiful place." Kaleen whispered.

"Yeah…" I said staring out at the many water Pokémon.

"Hey Ranger."

"Call me Chase. What's up?"

"Chase, the reason I didn't get any sleep last night was because of what Nurse Joy said; how she called us "love birds". I couldn't get that out of my head, it annoyed me so much." She was starting to blush and yawned as she talked. "So I guess I'm sorry that I was so mean to you this morning."

"It's no problem. I can understand why that might annoy you. So I guess that means you're pretty tired right now then…" I stopped because I felt something push down against my shoulder.

Kaleen had fallen asleep right there and had rested her head against my shoulder. I was a little nervous of this but I did like it; although, I had a very uneasy feeling. I looked out across the pond and thought I saw a figure run away from behind some bushes. Were we being watched?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6- The Indigo Plateau

I woke up when the sun was barely on the horizon. You could barely see it through the trees. I had slept flat on my back with my arms outstretched to either side. Kaleen had rested her head on my arm and used it as a pillow. I opened my eyes and looked straight up, all the same Pokémon I had noticed the night before were still there and peacefully asleep. I quietly sat up. I lifted Kaleen's head carefully and set her head down softly. Luckily she didn't wake. I noticed she was shivering a little bit so I took off my jacket and covered her upper body with it. I guess it isn't smart to sleep outside in the grass with a tang top. I looked over at the spot where I thought I saw a figure run away the night before. I got up and walked over to Riolu, waking him up. I knelt down next to him as he started to open his eyes slowly.

"Hey, I need you to check something out with your aura ok?" I whispered as quietly as I could so I didn't wake any of the other Pokémon up.

Riolu nodded and got up; we walked over to the spot on the other side of the pond.

"Right here." I pointed behind a bush. Riolu opened his palms and began to focus. It took him a while because the aura was very week. Eventually however, he was able to get a sense of the aura. He looked very confused, as if he never encountered an aura even relatively similar to this. "What is it? What's making you so confused?"

Riolu shot me an aura communication. You see, although every aura is different, different types of auras sort of have certain formulas. For example, a human aura generally appears light blue, the aura of a plant is generally a grayish green, and auras of Pokémon are usually red. However, this aura was a very faded red; almost a pink aura.

"What do you suppose it is?" I looked down in Riolu in question. Riolu just shrugged. "Hmm… a pink aura. Maybe a dying Pokémon?" Riolu looked at me as if I was the dumbest idiot on earth. "What? I'm just coming up with possibilities." Riolu was right though, I've known for a long time that aura is aura even after that being has died, the aura is the same. "What about a shape? Can you tell at least the basic shape of the aura?"

Riolu began to focus again. He began siphoning me an image. Every once in a while, Riolu could pull off allowing me to see what he saw with his aura. It was a big faded blob of pink but it did have some shape. It almost looked like a deformed human but it had either a third leg or a tail. I couldn't really tell. It was definitely taller then most humans and had very weird muscle formations. I couldn't see any other details and before I could analyze it closer Riolu had to break the link. I looked down at Riolu to see him really tuckered out. I picked him up and walked back to the other side of the pond where Kaleen and her Pokémon were still asleep. Riolu and I sat down at the edge of the pond and admired its peace.

"This is the life. You know what I mean Riolu?" I glanced down at Riolu who was still tuckered out.

However, he still mustered the energy to look up at me and nod before lying down in my lap and going back to sleep. I became silent and started to look around again. I glanced at all of Kaleen's sleeping Pokémon. I started wondering if she would actually win this Pokémon League she was entering. Her Pokémon definitely looked strong enough but I've also heard that anything can happen at these Leagues. I glanced then at Kaleen. She was sleeping peacefully and no longer shivering. I felt something churn in my stomach but I wasn't hungry. I'd never felt that way before and didn't know how to react to it so I looked away. I could feel my face getting hotter and redder. Lying down to get some rest, I starting to think about the man I was looking for, the men in the suits, the pink aura, and about how my first few days of being a Top Ranger had turned out. I closed my eyes while thinking and, eventually, fell asleep.

"Not again…" Kaleen smirked down at me as I opened my eyes. This time it was her head that was blocking the sun. It was at the pinnacle of the sky. "Man, aren't you Top Rangers supposed to get up at like the crack of dawn or something?"

"Heh… not on the weekends." I joked only to realize that it was actually Thursday.

I sat up wiping my eyes off and starting to get acclimated with the day. All of Kaleen's Pokémon had been returned to their Pokéballs and she seemed all set to go. I noticed that my jacket was now draped over my upper body. Riolu was still fast asleep on my lap. I shook him a little to wake him and he woke with a big yawn. I stood up and Riolu jumped onto the ground, barely able to stand from being so tired. I threw my jacket on and helped Riolu up onto my shoulder.

"So are we ready to go?" I asked Kaleen as she was staring out onto the pond.

"Yeah! We should be able to get to Indigo Plateau today if we hurry." Kaleen responded much chirpier after her night's sleep.

"Alright, let's get a move on."

We started moving through the forest. Instead of talking about our pasts today we starting talking about the Pokémon we managed to see as we were traveling the forest. There was a lot of flying and bug types. Metapods, Cacuna, Caterpies, Weedles, Butterfrees, Beedrill, Pidgeys, Pidgeottos, and we even saw a Pinsir. We also saw a lot of other types of Pokémon such as Pikachus, Mankeys, and even a Ralts which were really rare for the Kanto region. We started moving out of the forest after an hour or two and came into a big open field. The road we were on became completely paved when it met with another road instead of the gravel we were walking on before. We eventually came upon a cliff side with a path just big enough for the road. There weren't any bars protecting any cars or people from falling so we had to be very careful. I started to hear a roar of a car engine as we were walking along the cliff wall.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Kaleen as I stopped to listen.

"Yeah… sounds like a car engine." She responded listening closer now. We turned around and noticed a car moving very slowly towards us. It seemed like there was someone running in front of it. "No way!" Kaleen burst with excitement suddenly.

"What?" I was confused so I stared in the direction of the car.

The car was a white van that had a place to sit on top of the car. I couldn't make out any of the people on top of the car but there were six of them. The man running in front of the car had a track uniform on and was carrying a torch.

"It's the Pokémon League torch runner!" Kaleen was shrieking like a school girl.

We stepped to the side and let them pass. The people waved to us from the top of the van. There was also a Pikachu that was waving to us from the top of the van as well. The van passed us and we continued our trek. However, we didn't walk very far until we heard a crash from ahead of us.

"What was that?!" I gasped as we started to run towards the sound.

Just around the corner was the van that had just passed. They had stopped because a giant rock slide had occurred. We could see a chunk of the cliff above us had broken off and landed on the road. The torch runner was knocking on the door of the van and the six people from on top had come down.

"Well what are we going to do now?" a man in his late twenties asked with his arms crossed staring at the giant pile of rocks. Kaleen and I had walked up to the group of them and when Kaleen got a good look at who was talking she started jumping with joy.

"You're Bret Goodshow!" Kaleen screeched as she ran up to the man shaking the man's hand. "Your grandfather created the Pokémon League!"

"Why yes; how nice of you to notice." The man said nervously scratching his head. He was shorter then Kaleen and had white short hair. He wore stylish rectangular glasses and a red shirt and tan shorts. His skin was quite tan and he looked like he spent half his life on the beach.

"I'm sorry I have to interrupt but we need to get to the Indigo Plateau, we can't afford to be late." Another one of the guys from the top of the van interrupted. This guy had pretty dark skin and had spiky brown hair. His eyes were squinty and he looked to be about 50. He had an orange shirt with a green camping vest over it. He also wore tan camping pants and old sneakers.

"Yes of course but how are we supposed to get past this?" Mr. Goodshow began to contemplate something. I decided it was my turn to cut in.

"I might be able to help." I announced myself. "Riolu here can break rocks easy and if I can get on top of that cliff I'll go find another Pokémon that can help to."

"So you are a Pokémon ranger!" One of the others from the top of the van spoke up. She was definitely around the same age as the other man, about 50. She had orange hair that she kept up in one odd looking ponytail on the left side of her head. She wore a wet suit and seemed to have luminescent skin. "My old eyes weren't deceiving me."

"If that's the case then I'll help to!" Kaleen pulled out a Pokéball and released her Gardevoir. "Gardevoir can you help move these rocks with your psychic powers?"

Gardevoir began to glow purple and the rocks began lifting into the air and falling over the edge of the cliff.

"Riolu you go help!" Riolu leapt off my shoulder and started Rock Smashing the rocks. "Gardevoir, do you mind giving me a quick lift up to the top of that cliff?"

I started to float in the air as Gardevoir lifted me with its psychic powers. I rose up to the top of the cliff and was released. I caught my balance and looked around. There wasn't much to work with; it was just a lot of rocks. However, I noticed a big group of Geodude clumped together.

"Alright, Capture On!" I pointed my arm at them and the glowing top burst out of the styler on my wrist. I extended my two fingers and started to swipe the air with the light. I created an oval with my finger the top starting spinning around the Geodudes. This woke them up and they started to freak out but it was too late. I made one more oval and the light roped around the Geodudes and captured them. "Capture Complete! Alright guys, let's help move these rocks!"

I turned around to see Gardevoir and Riolu still moving and breaking rocks form below. The Geodudes floated down and started moving the rocks and throwing them off the edge into the water below. As one of them started to float down, I grabbed onto it and hitched a ride to the lower ledge. From that point forward, the work went quickly. When we were all done, Gardevoir, Riolu, and all the Geodudes were exhausted.

"Thanks guys, you've been a great help." I waved to the Geodudes as they climbed back up the cliff wall. Kaleen returned Gardevoir and I picked up Riolu.

"Well by golly! You two have been a great help." Another of the six people came up to us. He was very tall but also looked nearly 60 or 70 years old. His hair was tall and spiky red and he wore a black cape and black jumpsuit.

"Yeah, thanks a bunch." A younger woman, about my age, came up to us. She had long dark brown hair and had sheet white skin. She wore a light blue tang top and a dark red skirt that barely cleared her upper thigh; she also wore a white top hat.

"Indeed." The last guy from the top of the van said quietly. He wore a blue jacket, black shirt under that jacket, and blue jeans. He was about 50 years old and had spiky black hair from underneath his red and white baseball cap. There was a Pikachu on his shoulder as well. "That Gardevoir is impressive. Are you entering the Pokémon League?"

"Yeah and I'm going to win!" Kaleen cheered. She started looking closer at the man. "Wait a minute… you wouldn't happen to be… the Champion?!"

"Yup, this guy new my grandfather back when the Champion here was starting his journey. I wasn't a live back then but my grandfather told me a lot of stories." Mr. Goodshow cut in.

"Then that means the rest of you are the Elite Four!" Kaleen squealed. The four other people nodded, the older man laughing a little. "This is great!"

"Well anyways, would you two like a ride? It's still a bit of a trek to the Indigo Plateau." Mr. Goodshow asked us happily.

"Sure!" Kaleen and I said in unison.

We all hopped on top of the car and started moving behind the man with the torch and we starting talking.

"So you must be the ranger they are sending to investigate the mysterious men in black suits at the Indigo Plateau." Mr. Goodshow stated to me.

"I am; are you the one who reported it?"

"No, but I got a call from an officer that had reported seeing the men to the union. I'm very interested to find out who these guys are because I don't like people sneaking around the Indigo Plateau, especially not during a Pokémon League. My grandfather told me about times where he had Team Rocket try and steal the blasted flame of Moltres!"

"Wow, sounds like the Pokémon League is a pretty crazy event."

As I said that we came over a hill and I saw an amazing sight. There were tons of buildings about ten stadiums and a massive lake. I could see little huts, cabins, and even big hotels. There were restaurants, shops, and probably five Pokémon Centers. In the center of it all was a massive stadium. The courtyard to that stadium had paths that connected to look like a Pokéball with a giant fountain in the middle.

"Really brings back memories. The Indigo Plateau." The man with the Pikachu on his shoulder mumbled.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7- Training

Mr. Goodshow drove us up to the registration building before saying good bye. The registration building was a massive dome with dozens of registration stations. The place was packed with trainers all signing up for the Pokémon League. We walked up to one of the desks and a neatly dressed and groomed woman stood on the other side of the desk.

"Hello! How may I help you?" The woman smiled and showed her brilliantly white teeth before bowing her head and bobbing her puffy brown hair.

"I'd like to sign up for the Pokémon League." Kaleen responded happily. She reached into her bag and pulled out a thin rectangular case. It was incredibly shiny and blue and it had a red "K" on the front. She pressed the case's cover and it slid open. Eight brilliant and shiny badges rested in the case.

"Of course, let me just verify these badges." The woman pulled a device that looked like a pen out of her nice blue suit. She positioned the pen a few inches above the case and pressed the button on the end. A light came out from the other end and she seemed to scan the badges. "All clear; I will need your Pokédex and trainer card."

"Oh right!" Kaleen reached into her bag again and handed the woman a small red device with a bunch of buttons and a screen on it and a small identification card.

The woman placed the Pokédex in a panel and the trainer card in a slot on her computer. A screen popped up on the face of the desk displaying a picture of Kaleen, her age, height, weight, description, town of origin, and registered Pokémon.

"Alright, so you shall be using a Meganium, Gardevoir, Pidgeot, Luxray, Absol, and Scizor; correct?" The woman looked up at Kaleen for confirmation. Kaleen bobbed her head up and down causing her red hair to get all messy. The woman smiled and handed Kaleen her card and Pokédex back. "Excellent, welcome to the Pokémon League."

Kaleen grinned and placed her stuff back in her bag. She nodded her head in gratitude and turned to me.

"I'll show you around! Since you've never been here before I'll be your guide."

"Alright but hold on a minute." I turned to the woman behind the desk. "Does the Indigo Plateau have a Ranger Base?"

"I'm afraid not. The closest Ranger Base is in Viridian City."

"Ok. Thanks again." I turned back to Kaleen. "Alright, let's go!"

We began to walk around the grounds. Kaleen pointed out the best restaurants and shops. We stopped for lunch at a buffet that fed League participants for free. I tried to pay but Kaleen said she'd just get the food and I could eat it. We tried that but I just ended up getting kicked out… anyways, the food was really good. We then started walking towards the many cabins that were provided for the participants. Arriving at Kaleen's, I was pretty impressed. The exterior looked exactly like a log cabin you'd find in the depths of the forest, but the inside had very comfortable furniture including a couch, two chairs, a big screen TV, and a very powerful looking computer. Kaleen and I sat down, each on our own chairs and Riolu lied down on the couch and started to get comfortable.

"So where are you going to stay? Viridian City is awfully far away," Kaleen questioned me with a curious voice.

"I'll find a tree that Riolu and I can sleep in." Kaleen crossed her arms skeptically.

"For a whole week… come on that can't be comfortable."

"Actually it can be. You get used to sleeping outside as a ranger. More then often I prefer to sleep outside. You'd think a trainer like yourself has had to sleep outside a couple of times."

"I have had to, but I always prefer a nice warm bed," Kaleen stated as she stood up. "Now I'm going to go get in some training. Would you like to watch?"

"Watch? No, but maybe Riolu could benefit with some aura training."

Walking outside, we noticed a four court set of Pokémon battle fields that looked similar to tennis courts. We walked into one and Kaleen released her Pokémon.

"Hey Riolu; why don't you train with Kaleen for the day?" Riolu stared up at me, a little confused. "Would you mind Kaleen?"

"Not at all. We could work on your Aura Sphere attack." Kaleen then looked at me and raised her right eyebrow. "You're not going to join us?"

"I'm going to go ask around about the men we saw at New Island." Riolu ran over by Kaleen's Pokémon and I waved to them.

I started asking around town. Most people had no idea what I was talking about. I searched around as well but really didn't see anything suspicious. However, the grounds were huge. It took me almost three hours to explore the whole Indigo Plateau area. Finally, I went to the police station and asked about the situation there. I walked up to the front desk of a small white building, there were a few chairs inside but it really was just a man in a police uniform watching a screen of a computer from behind a brown desk.

"Excuse me Officer." I stated as the man jumped, not realizing I was there. "I'm the Pokémon Ranger the union sent to investigate the men in black suits."

"Oh! Of course!" The man was a little frazzled as he pulled out a sheet of paper from a drawer. "We have had sightings of these men near the stadiums; however, they are locked up right now."

"Is there anyone who can unlock them?"

"I'm afraid not, they will be unlocked at the opening ceremonies in three days."

"Alright then, I'll just take a look around there then."

"Sorry I couldn't be of more help."

I exited the station and started moving towards the closest stadium. I came to the entrance of the stadium and read the sign: "Earth Field." I started walking around the stadium, peering around corners, looking behind bushes, but I didn't find anything. I headed to the next stadium which was not far away. It seemed that there were four smaller stadiums all in one confined area. The next sign said "Water Field", I found nothing there either. Same goes for the "Ice Field" and the "Grass Field." I started walking towards the main stadium, which was much bigger then the last four when I noticed a younger boy, maybe around thirteen, training with a Lucario. I walked over to them and started to watch. Lucario constantly launched Aura Spheres and Bullet Punches at Frisbees and tennis balls the boy was throwing.

"Good job Lucario!" The jumped and his blue baseball cap almost fell off. He jumped a little too high on his last leap and ended up slipping when he hit the ground. I ran over to him and started to help him up. "Thanks a lot… Hey, you're a Pokémon Ranger!"

"Heh… yeah…" I responded rubbing the back of my head.

"Cool!" The boy brushed the grass off of his red t- shirt and blue jeans. His white tennis shoes were almost completely grass stained.

"That's a strong Lucario you've got," I commented. The boy beamed.

"Yeah, we've been together for a long time!"

"My partner Pokémon is a Riolu and we've been together for a long time to."

"That's awesome!!" The boy glanced at my wrist. "Wait a minute… you're not only a ranger… YOU'RE A TOP RANGER!!!!" The boy screeched happily as he jumped around in joy of meeting a top ranger. I scratched my head nervously but inside I was happy to get a complement.

"The name's Chase." I held out my hand to shake his as I laughed a bit.

"I'm Barry." He shook my hand fiercely. "I'm entering the Pokémon League.

"That's cool; I know you'll do great with that…" My sentence was broken by the sound of a capture styler rushing by me.

The unknown capture styler started to rapidly revolve around Lucario.

"What the?!" I turned around to see a man with a black suit, no hair, and black sunglasses staring in our direction holding a very oddly shaped capture styler. He wasn't either of the men we saw before; his skin was very dark and he was much shorter then even the smaller man we encountered.

"Lucario!" Barry yelled in distress. Lucario tried to break the capture line with a punch but failed to do so.

"Maybe I can break it." I grasped my styler and launched the top at the capture line.

My capture line intersected with the other and broke it. However, the man used the pistol like capture styler to create another loop around the Lucario.

"Get Lucario out of here!" I yelled back to Barry. He attempted to return Lucario to its Pokéball but for some reason the Pokéball failed to return Lucario.

The opponent's capture line began revolving around Lucario again. I grabbed control of my top as well and intersected the capture line again. This time however, the opponent's capture started glowing in a rainbow like fashion and my line broke on contact where nothing happened to the opponent's styler. I tried three more times to break the capture line but couldn't. The capture was completed and Lucario roared in pain. It appeared as if Lucario was being electrically shocked from the capture.

"Lucario return!" Barry pointed his Pokéball at Lucario again and a red light was fired from the button on the Pokéball. However, when it came into contact with Lucario, the light dissipated and Lucario continued to roar in pain.

Suddenly, the man with the black suit threw a seemingly normal Pokéball at the Lucario. Lucario was sucked in with a black light and was immediately captured.

"Lucario!" Barry screamed in horror as his Pokémon was stolen from under his nose. "Give him back you bully!"

Barry rushed at the man and motioned to punch him.

"Barry stop!" I yelled in warning but he wasn't listening. The man held up the Pokéball he had just captured Lucario in and released him. The Lucario appeared with the same emotionless expression that the Wigglytuff had. "Lucario!"

Lucario began charging an Aura Sphere and aimed it at Barry.

"Lucario…"

The Lucario fired it and hit its target. However, it was much stronger then it was before and it sent Barry flying across the field.

"Barry!" I chased after Barry as he landed. I knelt down next to him as he started to sweat cold sweat and his eyes dilated completely. "He's going into shock!" I used my styler to call 911 and looked back at the man, he was gone.

The paramedics arrived and immediately took him to the hospital. One of the paramedics began asking me questions.

"How did this happen?" The paramedic asked in an urgent "all business" tone. He had a hardened face and wore a blue jumpsuit.

"He was hit by a very powerful Aura Sphere attack by a Lucario," I responded, still in a little shock myself.

"How powerful?"

"It blew him across the field."

"Did he provoke the Lucario?"

"No, Lucario was… his."

"His? Was he abusing the Lucario?"

"No, the Lucario was stolen from him."

"Stolen from him? How…" One of the other paramedics came up and whispered something in his ear. "Unfortunately his condition is worsening, we must go but I will be contacting you."

"Understood."

The paramedics left and I immediately called the Air Base.

"Yes?" Rythmi appeared on the screen.

"Something has happened…" I began to explain all that had just happened. However, about half way through, Professor Hastings appeared on the screen.

"Chase Range, you say that he used an unusual capture styler right?" He asked quickly and urgently.

"Yes, it looked like a gun."

"And you say that the Lucario was captured in a Pokéball and released. When it was released it had much more power and had an emotionless expression."

"Exactly."

"This is not good. That capture styler is the same type that Professor Zephyr Folorum was working on. Who ever these people are, they must have kidnapped him for his design."

"His design?! Then why did it cause the Lucario to roar in pain?! Was that part of the design?!"

"It was a side effect he was trying to correct. This is a top priority mission, find out who these men are and what they want."

"Understood."

The screen went black and I returned to the cabin. It was really dark by now and I could see the cabin all lit up. I walked inside to see Riolu sleeping on the couch and Kaleen working on the computer.

"You were out for a long time." Kaleen smiled over at me. "You know I noticed something about your Riolu today."

"Yeah?" I said gloomily.

"If you would just evolve him, he would have not only incredible mastery of aura techniques, he would probably be the best aura using Lucario out there!"

"No, Riolu is terrified of evolving. I would never do that to him. Besides, he wouldn't be the same." Kaleen noticed I was very gloomy.

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned. I looked at her with sad eyes. I started to explain to her what had happened at the stadium today. She looked horrified.

"I just can't believe that someone would do that to a trainer and his Pokémon… and I…" I became enraged suddenly. "I couldn't do anything about it! I couldn't do anything! Nothing! Damn it! DAMN IT!" Riolu woke scared as I yelled. I kicked a chair and walked out the door, slamming it hard.

I slept alone in a tree outside the cabin that night.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8- Hospital

"Chase?" I was awoken suddenly by Kaleen's voice. It was still very dark out the sky was riddled with stars and the moon shown brightly.

"What do you want?" I said coldly. I glanced down at her. She looked very tired and she still had her day clothes on. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"I was worried about you." I jumped down from the large branch of the tree. "You stormed out so quickly last night. It's three in the morning and I still can't sleep."

"You shouldn't be worrying about me while the League is in less then a week." My voice was harshly critical and that seemed to make her worry more. I noticed Riolu behind her leg, barely awake. I sighed. "I'm sorry… I'm just upset about what happened yesterday."

"I know…" Kaleen bent down and picked up Riolu who immediately fell asleep in her arms. "Just promise me you won't be too hard on yourself. There's nothing you could've done and you tried your best."

"I will if you promise to get some sleep."

"I will."

Kaleen returned with Riolu to the house. I hopped back on the branch and fell back asleep. However, I did not sleep well. I had constant nightmares about the men in black suits.

I woke up only a few hours later at the crack of dawn. I looked at my styler and the time said 6:27 a.m. I hopped out of the tree and started walking towards the cabin. I peered in the living room window and saw Riolu still asleep on the couch but Kaleen was up. She was drinking something from a mug and looking out another window, watching the sun rise over the Indigo Plateau. She was now dressed in more comfortable looking pink pajamas. I knocked lightly on the door. A moment later, Kaleen opened the door.

"Morning," I said while yawning as she opened the door.

"Morning, you're up early." Kaleen walked back to her chair and waved at me to come inside. "How are you doing? Still upset?"

"Yeah, but I've calmed down." I moved the computer chair next to her and sat down. I gazed out over the lake and saw the brilliant sunrise. The sun's rays leaked through the trees on the horizon and glided across the lake's surface causing the lake to appear orange. "That's an amazing sight."

"I know; I always love to watch the sunrise on the Indigo Plateau." Kaleen looked over at me and smiled. I felt my face turning red so I looked back at Riolu, keeping my face away from Kaleen.

"I'm going to be visiting the hospital today to check on Barry. Would you like to come?"

"I'd be glad to. Just let me take a shower quick." Kaleen got up and started walking to the bathroom. I smelt myself quickly, realizing that I hadn't taken a shower since before I left the Almia Ranger Union.

"I think I'll need one to!" I waved my hand in front of nose as I smelt my armpit. Kaleen laughed and closed the door behind her.

About forty minutes later she immerged from the bathroom all dressed and ready to go. I took her place and was done in about fifteen minutes. I grabbed Riolu who awoke instantly. He jumped on my shoulder and we all set off. It was close to 7:30 a.m. so, as we walked to the hospital, we started to see other people waking up. Some League participants were already up and training. We moved down into the trade district and got breakfast at a restaurant. This time I actually paid and was able to eat. We finished eating and continued our walk. Most of the walk was silent; I was still upset about Barry's Lucario and I felt that Kaleen was a little upset with me for snapping at her last night. We arrived at a large campus of a building; it was tens of stories tall and seemed to have about ten different wings. Walking into the building, we saw nurses all dressed in scrubs and doctors in lab coats walking briskly, people yelling to get someone's chart, family members sitting in the waiting room, and a front desk where a neatly dressed man was sitting, informing people about the hospital. Kaleen and I walked up to the man.

"Excuse me," I said to him as he was typing something on his computer.

"How can I help you," He mumbled, not looking up from his computer.

"We're here to visit a boy named Barry. He was admitted yesterday."

"Last name?"

"I don't know it."

"Alright, let's see." He looked away from his computer and started flipping through a folder. "Barry… Barry… Here we are. Barry Kensington was the only person named Barry that was admitted yesterday. He is currently in critical care."

"Can we visit him?"

"I'm afraid not, his condition is life threatening. We can't allow visitors." The man returned to his computer. I glanced at Kaleen who looked down. I then had an idea.

"I am a Top Ranger, the Top Ranger that has been sent to investigate a case here on the Indigo Plateau. This boy may have some vital information." I showed the man my styler and clicked on the identification function.

"Hmm… I see. Alright you can see him, but I'm afraid the girl and the Riolu must stay here." The man handed me an ICU pass card.

"Thank you." I turned to Kaleen. "Would you mind hanging on to Riolu for a few minutes?"

"Not at all." She picked up Riolu from my shoulder and held him in her arms. Riolu got comfortable and they went to sit down.

I walked further into the hospital and started to figure out how to get to the ICU. I followed the signs, went up the elevator to the 7th story and walked through some massive doors. I walked into another waiting room with nobody in it accept a nurse at the counter. The room was almost gloomy and completely silent.

"Excuse me, is this the ICU?" I asked the female nurse.

"Yes, do you have a pass?" I showed her the pass. She nodded and I walked through another set of a large doors.

I walked into a wing with doctors and nurses rushing all over the place. A doctor with a lab coat and curly, light, and short brown hair walked over to me.

"Can I help you?" He had a stern face and an annoyed voice.

"I'm here to see Barry Kensington." I showed him the pass. "Ranger business."

"Humph… he's my patient. Come with me." We walked past all of the other doctors and nurses into a small room. I saw Barry hooked up to an IV and an oxygen feeder through his nose. His vitals were being displayed on a panel and they were very low. "All of his ribs were broken and a few of them were bent back and penetrated his lungs. Luckily, they all missed his heart but he is still in a very serious situation." I was stunned; he was hurt so badly, by one attack. The doctor put his hands on the back of his head and rested his neck. "We… don't think he's going to make it."

"Can he talk?" I said in a whisper.

"He could, but it might actually kill him." The doctor said with a sound of ultimatum. He wasn't going to let me speak to him. However, at that moment, Barry's eyes opened slightly.

"Ch… Chase…" Barry squeaked out. The doctor moved at the speed of light over to him.

"You must not speak!" The doctor said in critical worry.

"I… have to." I walked over to Barry.

"Please Barry, listen to the doctor."

"No… I must say this… Please get Lucario back… I know I can't… participate in the League… but I… don't care… just get him back… I know you can do it… after all… you're a Top Ranger… the best of the best." Barry fainted at that point. The doctor shooed me out of the room and followed.

"Damn these Leagues." He gritted his teeth and placed his hands on the back of his head. "Don't come back, that little speech of his may very well have cost him his life."

"I understand and I'm sorry. I won't come back until I've gotten his Lucario back."

"Get out now!" The doctor turned. "Noobie! Get a fresh oxygen tank and IV for this boy." He was yelling at another doctor in blue scrubs and jelled black hair.

I walked out of the ICU and handed in the pass at the front desk, Kaleen and I started walking out.

"So how is he?" Kaleen asked innocently, not realizing the seriousness of his situation. At first I didn't answer, I kept thinking about what Barry had said. Even after all that happened, he still believed in me, he still thought of me as a hero. However, I didn't feel good about this complement at all; but that wasn't going to stop me from fulfilling his request.

"They… don't think he's going to make it." Kaleen looked down and Riolu wiped a tear of her face. "He gave me one request… and I'm going to fulfill it no matter what." I picked up Riolu from Kaleen's arms. "Riolu, you and I are going to find these guys and stop them. Not only that… we are going to get that Lucario back. Even if it's the last thing we do."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9- The Opening Ceremonies

Over the next three days, I searched for signs of the men in black suits. Unfortunately, I did not find any of them or any clues to what they were up to. I was sitting and staring out the window of the cabin while thinking about the case I was on; Kaleen walked in from outside with an excited look on her face.

"Tonight's the night!" Kaleen was giddy as she rushed into her room. I could hear her shuffling through her stuff. I stood up and walked over and peeked in the room.

"What're you all excited about?" I noticed the Riolu was helping her look through her clothes.

"Tonight's the Opening Ceremonies!" She beamed at me and grabbed a bunch of clothes and shooed me out of her room. "I'll be out in a minute! Riolu, would you help me find out what to wear?"

Riolu jumped with joy, which I thought was a little weird because Riolu had never gotten all excited about clothes or fashion before. I figured that it was just Riolu's newfound attachment to Kaleen. They were like two peas in a pod. I sat back down, continuing to stare out at the now luminescent lake front as the sun started to set. I think I fell asleep because the next thing I new, Riolu was jumping to get my attention on the floor in front of me.

"It's about time!" I heard Kaleen's voice from behind me. "Well, how do I look?"

I swung around in my chair and was flabbergasted. She was stunning; she had put on a blue dress that sparkled as the rays of the sun set hit her, her hair was curled and hung down over her shoulders, and she had a beautiful diamond necklace on with an opal gem hanging on the end. She looked beautiful.

"Umm… uhhh… you look… wow." I felt like I was drooling and she chuckled at me a little bit. Riolu had an incredibly happy look on his face. "Wait a minute, I've never heard of people getting all dressed up for Pokémon Leagues. I thought that was just contests."

"I know, but I like to get dressed up for the Opening Ceremonies. After all, there is a formal dance at the conference center so I like to look as formal as I can," she said as her face turned red. "I was meaning to ask you. Would you like to…" she hesitated a moment. "… Be my date?"

I was speechless, but Riolu was nodding at me fiercely. He always knew exactly what was going on. Not to mention, he sent me about a thousand aura messages all saying the same thing… "Go with her you idiot!"

"I would love to," I said, my voice trembling a lot. Kaleen smiled brightly and hugged me so hard that I felt my back crack. "Well if I'm going to a dance, I guess I should probably get into something nicer. Well, that's if I had anything else to wear."

Kaleen chuckled and waved off the comment. "Don't worry about that, there's a tuxedo rental shop on the Indigo Plateau that has huge discounts during the night of the dance."

With that we were off. After leaving the cabin, we walked down to the same street with all the restaurants. I noticed that one of the shops was very crowded; I also noticed that we were heading towards that in particular shop. We slipped inside and I saw about three men and boys getting fitted with rental tuxedoes. Kaleen and I walked up to the front desk where a man wearing a very nice tuxedo was reading a magazine.

"Excuse me?" Kaleen asked as the man looked up.

"How may I help you, Madam?" The man spoke with a very heavy French accent.

"We need a rental tuxedo for my date here." Kaleen pulled me over to the man as I was looking at the magazine "Ranger's Daily" that I picked up from the desk. The man began scanning me with his eyes; he then scanned Kaleen.

"Wii wii… Alright Monsieur, to match this beautiful lady's brilliant attire, we will need an incredibly high caliber tuxedo." He started walking towards a display of tuxedoes in a fancy glass case. Kaleen pushed me to follow him. I moved up behind the man. "Hmmm…" the man started to look between me and a set of three tuxedoes continuously. This actually took fifteen minutes…

"I mean no disrespect, but how long is this going to take?" I asked as I watched Kaleen play with Riolu while they waited.

"You cannot rush genius, Monsieur." The man started to play with his curly black mustache and ran his other hand through his jet black hair. "I've got it!"

Suddenly, the man grabbed me and stood me straight up in front of him. He began measuring me in so many places that I got dizzy trying to follow him with my eyes.

"Stay!" He barked at me as if I was a dog. He walked briskly off into a room from behind the counter. Returning moments later, he carried a tuxedo set on a hanger. "Go! Try this on immediately!"

I was violently pushed into a changing room where I began to change into the tuxedo. It actually took me a while to get all situated because I had trouble getting the cumber bun on correctly. I stared myself in the mirror; I felt like I was in a spy movie and was going to kick some bad guy butt while in a tuxedo.

"Monsieur, are you finished? I do not have all day!" The man yelled from outside the dressing room." I exited, annoyed that he would yell at me for wasting his time when it took him fifteen minutes to decide which tuxedo for me to use. "Ahh… Beautiful! Excellent! Madam, please come take a look!"

Kaleen and Riolu walked over. Riolu busted out laughing and Kaleen scaled me with her eyes.

"Is it not wonderful? The dark blue bow tie will go perfectly with your vibrant blue dress." The man gasped, basking in his own glory.

"I love it! You look wonderful, Chase." Kaleen gave me the sweetest smile and I couldn't help it, I had to smile back.

I then paid for the tuxedo and exchanged my Ranger clothes. However, I did put my styler on my wrist under my tuxedo jacket just in case. It turned out that it was really cheap. Only thirty dollars for the night was a really good deal, in my opinion. It was now dark and we set off for the main stadium. When we got there, Riolu hopped on my shoulder and Kaleen had to go to where all the trainers were supposed to line up for their appearance in the opening ceremonies. Riolu and I found a seat near the center of the stadium and sat down. People filled in next to us and everyone quieted down as the lights of the stadium went black.

I looked down to the floor of the stadium to see a flame flickering as it traveled across the stadium floor. Everyone was silent as the flame started to rise up onto a platform.

"Welcome everyone, to the Pokémon Indigo League!" A voice came from the speakers spread through out the stadium.

The lights flashed back on and everyone cheered. On a platform in the center of the stadium floor was a man holding a torch. It was the champion, the man with the Pikachu. Mr. Goodshow walked onto the platform and grabbed a microphone that was there.

"It's a pleasure to see all of you here and so pumped for this year's Indigo League. I would like to introduce the Kanto Elite Four and Champion!" Mr. Goodshow pointed his arm in the direction of the champion and everyone cheered. The Elite Four also walked onto the platform, waving to their fans. "It is now my pleasure to introduce the trainers participating in this year's Indigo League!"

Hundreds of trainers started to walk out onto the stadium floor, all stopping in front of the platform. I quickly scanned for Kaleen and spotted her near the center of the crowd. Riolu and I waved but she didn't notice us.

"Seeing you all here now, it brings me back to the days when I was participating in these Leagues." Mr. Goodshow seemed to wipe a tear from his face. "As you all know, the winner of this League will have the chance to challenge the Elite Four. If the winner manages to defeat them, he or she will have the chance to battle the Champion for the title." Murmurs were heard through out the trainers and excitement seemed to build. "With that, I invite each and every one of you to the Opening Ceremonies Ball held in the conference building on the Indigo Plateau. This will be a magical few days my friends! Savor every moment for there is nothing else in life like it!"

As he finished the sentence, the stadium went black again and the audience and trainers went silent. All we could see was the small flame of the torch. The flame began to move upwards slowly; it literally rose from the torch itself and grew into the shape of a massive bird.

"I give you, The Flame of Moltres!" Mr. Goodshow said through the microphone.

The flame flew up to the top of the stadium and seemed to perch itself in the cauldron where the flame would be lit for the next few days. As it lit the great torch, fireworks were fired from all around the Indigo Plateau, exploding in the sky in dazzling lights. Everyone, even the Elite Four and the Champion, cheered as the fireworks were fired. The lights of the stadium came back on and everyone started to file out, everyone heading for the conference center. I met up with Kaleen along the way, who had released all her Pokémon. They all seemed to be incredibly happy. Riolu jumped down to join them and they followed us to the conference center. The inside of the conference center was incredible. It was a massive room with hundreds of tables, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a live band, and people conversing, dancing, and just having fun. Riolu and Kaleen's Pokémon immediately rushed to a group of other Pokémon that seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Come on! Let's dance!" Kaleen grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the dance floor. We seemed to dance for hours; I wasn't very good at it at first until Kaleen gave me a few quick lessons. It was tons of fun, we met new people, ate some amazing food, I got to see a Machamp try and do the Macarena and get really confused to what arms to use for which movements, and I realized that I loved to spend time with Kaleen. We sat down at a table, tired out from so much dancing and started to laugh at how ridiculous we made ourselves look. Riolu came over to us, stumbling as if he had just spun around a hundred times with out stopping.

"Riolu, what's wrong?" I asked him as he had trouble standing.

Riolu sent me a very strange aura message that didn't seem to make any sense. It was like "Drink feel me weird" or something like that. I then looked over at Kaleen's Pokémon and noticed they were all behaving in the same manner.

"We should go over there and see what happened to them," I said in a serious voice to Kaleen. However, I was rolling on the floor laughing when I finally found out.

We walked over there and saw seven empty bottles of wine lying on he ground in between the Pokémon.

"Kaleen, I think Riolu and your Pokémon are… drunk." Kaleen and I laughed for a long time, the whole time I was wondering how exactly they had gotten a hold of these wine bottles. I set Riolu down with the rest of the Pokémon who were starting to come to their senses and Kaleen and I returned to our table. "So, Kaleen, would you like some punch?" I asked smoothly.

"I would, what I kind thing to ask," she responded just as smoothly.

I walked over to the punch table and filled two cups with the bright red liquid. I noticed a man on the other side of the table drinking punch. He wore a white suit and had seemingly glowing white hair that spanned down to his waist. He was around the age of fifty or fifty five. I thought I had seen him before but I could not place it. The man looked at me, noticing that I had been staring at him for a moment.

"Can I help you young man?" He asked calmly.

"Oh! No, I just thought I'd seen you from somewhere; my mistake." I looked back down at the punch I was pouring.

"Ahh, I see. What's your name?"

"Chase Range. How about you; what's your name?" But I didn't get a response. I looked up and he was gone. "Huh, well that was rude."

I didn't care though. I returned to Kaleen and handed her the punch. We drank it down and both sprung up to go back to dance again. We danced for even longer this time and noticed that the dance floor had seriously decreased in population. There were only a few people left including us. We saw the Elite Four woman with the orange hair dancing with the Champion and a few others throughout the dance floor, but other then that we were the last people there.

"Alright people, this is it for tonight." The singer in the band was talking through a microphone. "We got one more song for you before you all should go back to your cabins and get some rest for the big competition starting tomorrow."

They started playing a slow song. At first, Kaleen and I were just standing on the dance floor but we soon began to dance. I wrapped my arms around her back and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I wished that the song would last forever but it flew by as quickly as it had started.

"That was… fun," Kaleen said quietly as the song ended.

"Yeah…" I felt my face turning red as hers did as well.

We walked over to the Pokémon, who were all sound asleep. Kaleen returned her Pokémon to their Pokéballs and I picked Riolu up from the ground. We stopped at the tuxedo rental shop, which was still open, to return the tuxedo and get my clothes back. Kaleen and I then had a nice and silent walk back to the cabin. I checked the time on my styler and it said 3:00 a.m. as we walked up to the door of the cabin.

"Wow, three a.m., we are getting back late," I said to break the silence between us.

"Yeah, we are…" Kaleen mumbled. There was a slightly awkward silence after that. We didn't say anything for a minute or two. "Well, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

"Probably in the same tree as the other nights."

"Ok, well… good night." Kaleen walked into the cabin and closed the door.

I started to walk towards the tree when I heard the door open again from behind me. Kaleen came around and kissed me on the lips. I was surprised but I kissed back. I didn't want it to end, just as I didn't want the last song to end. However, it did end, and when it did, we smiled at each other under the moonlight. Kaleen returned to the cabin and I hopped up into the tree. I slept very well that night, and I have a feeling that Kaleen did to.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10- The Indigo League (I)

The sun woke me as it shown into my eyes from the sunrise. I sat up in the tree and Riolu, who was asleep in my lap, nearly fell out of the tree. I caught him, but just barely. However, even though I expected him to wake up and get freaked out, he continued to sleep as if he was snug in a comfortable bed. I then noticed that I had hung myself upside down on the tree to catch Riolu. The only thing holding me up was my legs and the strength of my knees. As I began to slip, I looked down and just hoped I wouldn't break my skull as I landed. I fell and landed on my left cheek. It did indeed hurt but it wasn't a long enough fall to break my neck so I was in good shape. As I stood up, I noticed Kaleen standing outside of the cabin and staring out over the campus of the Indigo Plateau, the sunrise to her back seemed to stare out with her. Cradling Riolu in my arms, I walked over to her.

"Good morning!" I said softly as I stopped next to her. "Are you ready for your competition?" She, however, was shaking and had the most nervous look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh it's nothing!" She said just as shaky and nervous as she looked.

"Are you always like this before competitions?" I asked laughing a little. Kaleen sighed.

"No, it's just that this is my last chance."

"Last chance?"

"I'm about to turn 18 and, even though I grew up with my parents in Blackthorn City, I have to go to Azalea Town to take over my Grandma Maisy's Pokéball creation business. She's just too old to work and my parents both have jobs in Blackthorn."

"So you won't be able to compete in Leagues anymore?!"

"That's correct; and I've never won any of the Leagues I've participated in, so if I don't win this one…" There was a moment of awkward silence.

"You won't have another chance." Kaleen closed her eyes tightly in frustration. "Don't worry!" I yelled as I placed my hand on her shoulder. Kaleen turned her head towards me and gave me a look of confusion. "You're an excellent Pokémon trainer and your Pokémon are really strong! Even if you don't win, you'll still have given it your all and done all you could do! It doesn't matter if you win or lose. The only thing that matters is that you tried!"

I expected Kaleen to say "Oh you're right! Thanks a lot Chase; you're the best!" Unfortunately for me, that wasn't the response I got.

"What do you know?! You're just a Pokémon Ranger… A Top Ranger! You don't know what it feels like to train and train, just to get beaten by someone else and have to start all over; and you certainly don't know what it feels like to have to give up all you've worked for!" Kaleen screamed angrily and stormed off into the cabin.

Riolu had just awoken from her rant and I though to my self. _What just happened?_

Only a few moments later, she came storming out of the cabin with her Pokéballs on her belt and headed down the road towards the main campus. She acted as if I wasn't even there. I felt bad but didn't actually know what I did wrong so I just headed in the same direction, towards the campus.

Trainers, referees, police officers, and just normal citizens were all over the place. Paths were packed, restaurants and shops were full, the Pokémon centers looked as if they had been over run, and the four miniature "Elemental" stadiums were being swarmed. I had long since lost track of Kaleen and decided to ask one of the police officers if there had been any sign of the men in black suits. I walked up to an officer standing guard on the corner of a street.

"Hi, I'm Chase Range, Top Ranger. Do you know if there has been any sign since two days ago of the men in black suits?"

"I'm not sure," replied the officer. "Let me call head quarters and ask." He pulled out a Walkie Talkie and pressed a button. "This is Lt. Ward 17th Precinct. I've got a Top Ranger here who wants to know if there has been any sign of the intruders that were reported over the last couple of days." He paused a moment while listening to the response. He then put away the Walkie Talkie and turned to me. "I'm afraid not, but I'll keep an eye for them and I'll tell my team to as well."

"Alright, thanks."

I continued my walk towards the stadiums and kept searching, hoping to see any evidence of the men in black suits. However, I didn't have any luck. As I came up to the "Water Field" I noticed a screen displaying the match that was about to start.

**Jake Blant vs. Kaleen Terrance**

"Well, if it isn't Kaleen's first match." I said to Riolu as he excitedly pointed at the name. Riolu shot me an aura message saying that we should go watch. "Why not? Maybe we can get some answers to way she exploded on me this morning."

I walked into the stadium doors and went up a huge stair case to the top of the stadium. The last step brought me to the stadium seats and it was an amazing sight. The stadium floor was a pool with floating white platforms for the Pokémon and trainer to stand on. I quickly found a decent seat and anxiously waited for the match to start. The stadium quickly filled up and a referee appeared on the field and stood at his post.

"Welcome to the Water Field. In this battle, each trainer will use three Pokémon. The trainer whose Pokémon are all unable to battle first will lose. Remember, each trainer must win their matches on each of the four fields to qualify for the finals. So only one of these two trainers will have a chance to battle in the finals at the main stadium!" an announcer was talking into a microphone from a booth on the opposite side of the stadium. "Will the trainers please enter the stadium?"

Kaleen walked out on the left side and a young boy wearing a swim suit walked out on the right side.

"On the left we have Kaleen Terrance and on the right we have Jake Blant!" the announcer continued. "Please release your first Pokémon!"

Kaleen grabbed a Pokéball from her belt and threw it into the air. A moment later, Gardevoir appeared and started to float on top of one of the platforms. The other boy, Jake, threw his Pokéball into the air and a Lanturn appeared in the water.

"Kaleen will be starting out with her Gardevoir and Jake will be starting with his Lanturn," the announcer said. The referee raised his red and green flags. "That's the signal. You may begin!"

"Lanturn, Dive!" Jake yelled. Lanturn immediately descended under the water. It moved swiftly through the water and was difficult to follow with my eyes.

"Gardevoir, use Psychic to pull it out of the water," Kaleen yelled with a slightly worried tone in her voice. Gardevoir closed its eyes and raised its arms. A purple light could be seen moving under the water, but it was not fast enough to catch up with Lanturn.

"That's not going to work! Lanturn, immerge from the water and use Shock Wave!"

Lanturn jumped out of the water and a small bolt of electricity shot out from its glowing orb on its antenna. Gardevoir was hit and jerked violently at the electrocution. The purple light that was following Lanturn disappeared and Lanturn dove under water again.

"Gardevoir, try using Future Sight, hit the timing just right!"

Gardevoir, once again, began to focus. Only this time a purple light did not appear. Lanturn jumped out of the water again and shocked Gardevoir. It was easy to see that Gardevoir had taken a lot of damage. Suddenly, a purple light appeared from no where underneath Gardevoir and shot directly at Lanturn. Lanturn was to fast and the attack hit the platform behind Lanturn. The platform broke in half and sunk to the bottom of the pool. Kaleen snapped her fingers in, what at first I thought was frustration, but was actually realization.

"Gardevoir, keep using Psychic to destroy the platforms!" Kaleen yelled excitedly and Gardevoir responded; platforms starting to crack and sink one at a time.

"I don't know what you're up to but you've got no chance! Lanturn, use Thunder!" Jake yelled.

Lanturn leapt out of the water and seemed to fly above Gardevoir. Electricity exploded from its body down at Gardevoir. Gardevoir was hit but the platform was destroyed as well. Gardevoir stopped floating and fell into the water; it was completely unconscious.

"It's alright Gardevoir, you did what I needed you to." Kaleen returned Gardevoir to its Pokéball and grabbed another Pokéball from her belt. She threw it into the air and Absol appeared. "Absol, use Extreme Speed!" Absol disappeared in a blur.

"Ha! What's Extreme Speed going to do? You destroyed all the platforms!" As Jake said that, he got splashed by a strangely forming wave.

The wave was split down the middle and was moving in all different sorts of directions through out the water. It was forming at such an incredible speed that it almost looked as if it was happening on the entire surface area of the water at once. I looked closely and noticed a white and purple blur in between the waves.

"Holy Crap! Absol's running ON the water!" I yelled, the people around me started looking closer and gasps were heard.

"That's right; I've trained my Absol to be so fast that it can run on water while using Extreme Speed." Kaleen smirked. "Absol, run in a circle around where Lanturn is in the water!"

The blur started to revolve around the center of the stadium. At first, Lanturn couldn't move, it was confused by the blur, and by the time it had shook off the shock, it was too late. Absol had created a current that sucked in Lanturn and shot in out of the water and into the air.

"Absol, use Night Slash!" Kaleen yelled and Absol shot towards Lanturn and looked like a black streak had cut the Lanturn. Absol stopped and fell into the water. It was incredibly exhausted and passed out immediately. However, Lanturn had also passed out.

"Both Pokémon are unable to battle! This means that Kaleen has only one Pokémon left and Jake has two! Can Kaleen pull this one out?"

Kaleen and Jake both returned there Pokémon to their Pokéballs.

"There's no way I'm losing this one! Knowing that this was the Water Field I chose only my water Pokémon! Go, Lumineon!" Jake threw a Pokéball into the air and a beautiful Lumineon appeared in the water.

"That's not always smart kid. Yes this is a water field, but water has its disadvantages; and I've got its biggest one right here." Kaleen threw a Pokéball into the air and Luxray appeared in the water. "My Luxray won't be able to swim in the water as fast as your Lumineon but that won't be any help to you if you can't get out an attack! Luxray, Discharge!"

Luxray, barely able to keep its head above the water, tensed up and sent electricity flying in every direction in the water. Lumineon immediately fainted from the shock.

"Lumineon!" Jake immediately returned his Pokémon. "You think you're so smart? Try this out for size!" He threw a Pokéball into the air and a big figure appeared in the water. Unfortunately, I couldn't see what it was at first, but Jake answered that question fast enough. "Are you ready, Whiscash?"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11- The Indigo League (II)

The Whiscash jumped up out of the water and blasted a large stream of water at Luxray. Luxray was hit hard by the Hydro Pump, unable to dodge because of its restricted movements in the water.

"You're finished! Your most powerful attacks are useless and your Pokémon can't even dodge my Whiscash's attacks! Just give up!" Jake yelled mockingly at Kaleen.

Kaleen was shaking with anger, I could see that she knew she was in trouble but she wasn't the kind of person to just give up when things got tough.

"Luxray, swim as fast as you can and use Crunch!" Kaleen yelled at Luxray frantically. Luxray tried to swim fast but couldn't go more then a few miles per hour and Whiscash could maneuver every where in the pool. Luxray was unable to even get near the Whiscash.

"Alright Whiscash, let's finish this with Earthquake!"

Whiscash swam down to the bottom of the pool and began to violently bang its body against the floor of the pool. I could feel the ground shaking underneath me. At the bottom of the pool, I could see the destroyed platforms start to move and one shot up and nearly hit Luxray. The pool itself was in chaos; the water was splashing in every direction and Luxray could not keep its head above the water.

"Luxray!" Kaleen screamed but seemed to remember something at that point. "I know we haven't perfected the move yet, but we need to try it!" Luxray, who was finally able to get his head above the water, shot a confirming look at Kaleen. "Luxray, use Magnetrise!"

Luxray made an expression that looked like it was clenching every muscle in its body. I could see small sparks of electricity jet through Luxray's body. Suddenly, a small whirlpool formed around Luxray's body and it started to get bigger and bigger. After a few seconds, Luxray's body was floating in mid air and the water had settled underneath him. Whiscash's attack stopped.

"What?! How is your Luxray floating?!" Jake looked baffled as he stared at the floating Luxray.

"It's an attack called Magnetrise. The Pokémon excretes high levels of magnetic energy and repels particles of the same charge allowing the Pokémon to float. Now we're on even terms, my best attacks won't hurt you and your best attacks won't hurt me!"

"It's fine! I'll just win with my water attacks!" Jake yelled cockily but I could tell he was getting nervous. "Whiscash, use Water Pulse!"

Whiscash jumped out of the water and blasted a glowing orb of water at Luxray from its mouth. Luxray easily dodged, being incredibly swift in the air.

"Luxray, use Crunch!" Luxray sped at Whiscash and bit the fish in the side. Whiscash roared in pain and retreated back under water.

"Whiscash, use Rest!" Whiscash fell asleep under water and began recovering health.

"Now's our chance Luxray! Giga Impact!"

Luxray shot under the water, which formed around him like a bubble, and impacted Whiscash with immense force. The attack caused a pillar of water to shoot up over the area of the impact. Luxray blasted out of the top of that pillar and landed perfectly on the water. Whiscash lied at the bottom of the pool and was completely unconscious.

"The winner is Kaleen of Blackthorn City!" The crowd began to cheer and I swear I was the loudest. Riolu was jumping with joy on my lap.

Kaleen walked over to Jake and shook his hand. She then returned Luxray to its Pokéball and walked back into the waiting room for trainers. I ran to try and catch up with her. I asked where I could find the trainer waiting room and was directed to a large set of doors. I found them and walked in on a scene I wish I'd never seen. Kaleen was standing in front of the three Pokémon that she had just battled with.

"What the hell was that?" she was saying critically. Gardevoir, Absol, and Luxray looked down. "Gardevoir, you could have been very useful against Whiscash. But, you couldn't beat that Lanturn. I had to end up totally changing the strategy to make up for your blunder! Seriously, what's with your Psychic attack being that slow?! It's pathetic! Absol, why was it that you couldn't continue after that Extreme Speed? Are you really so out of shape that you couldn't keep it going? You were only running for like thirty seconds, you couldn't have kept at it a little longer? Luxray, I'm proud that you finally got Magnetrise down, but why didn't your Crunch attack defeat the opponent right there and then? This is our last chance and we almost lost to a stupid kid! We'll never win with this kind of effort! So stop messing around and start…" I grabbed her arm at that point.

"We need to talk." I pulled her to the other side of the room and sat her down on one of the chairs. "Return your Pokémon." I was using a very serious and critical voice so she obeyed me. I knelt down to eye level with her and Riolu hopped off my shoulder and left the room, he knew what to do. She was pouting as if she was annoyed and didn't want to be here, this actually made me pretty angry. "I may not know a lot about battling, but what you just did there was out of line."

"You saw the battle; you saw how close it was!" she yelled back at me but I pointed at her to shut up.

"I saw an amazing battle where your Pokémon gave it there all. I saw a battle that made me proud to have such a resourceful and strategic friend as you. What the battle didn't do for me was make me think that you needed to ring out your Pokémon."

"That's it! I don't want to see you at any more of my matches. You can't lecture me on how to handle my Pokémon." Kaleen stood up and started walking out of the room. I noticed tears developing in her eyes.

"I may not be able to lecture you on how to train your Pokémon, but I'm a Pokémon Ranger and it's my responsibility to make sure that all Pokémon are safe and being treated with the respect and kindness they deserve." Kaleen stopped after I said this. "And I will do whatever I can to make sure that ALL Pokémon are treated with respect and kindness."

Kaleen started to turn her head back to me, but decided not to and walked swiftly out of the room. I ran to the door and saw her as she started to run out of the stadium. I saw Riolu look down as he saw her run. I picked him up.

"It's alright buddy. She'll be fine." The moment I said that, my styler began beeping. I clicked the button and looked at the screen. It was the Police officer I had talked to in the Police Station.

"This is Chase Range, correct?" he said frantically.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"We've had a few complaints, three to be exact. There have been three reports of men in black suits stealing their Pokémon with a capture styler."

"What?! When did this happen? Where did this happen?"

"One of the assaults was by the lake front, one was in a restaurant, and the other was by the cabins. It happened about five minutes ago almost simultaneously. The weird thing is…"

"What? What's weird?"

"The three Pokémon that were stolen… were all different Lucarios."

"Lucario… are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright, thanks for the reports. Tell your men to keep an eye out for any signs of them."

"Right."

I immediately contacted the Air Base. Rhythmi immediately picked up.

"What is it?"

"There have been three more incidents with the men in black suits."

"What's your report?"

"They stole another three Lucarios. What would they want with the Lucarios?"

"That's interesting; we've been getting reports of missing Lucarios from all over the world. We've had five reports already from Sinnoh and Kanto. One was stolen from the current champion of the Sinnoh Region and another was stolen from the leader of the Veilstone gym in the Sinnoh Region. I'll run this by the Captain Commander and Professor Hastings. In the mean time, continue your mission." She disconnected and I started walking out of the stadium.

"I just don't get it Riolu, what would these men want with a bunch of Lucarios?" I asked Riolu, annoyed that more kidnappings were committed and I couldn't do anything. I sat down in a chair started to think hard about what they could possibly do with that many Lucarios. I thought for twenty minutes without any ideas at all.

"Will Kaleen Terrance and Haley Jacobson please report to the Grass field?" a voice said over a big intercom system that was set up through out the Indigo Plateau. "Her next match is starting… I know she didn't want me to go, Riolu, but we're going anyways."

And I did! I found a seat and gazed down at the stadium floor that looked like a football field without any print on the grass. It was tall and lush grass and it looked like a paradise for any grass type Pokémon. People filled into the stadium and awaited the start of the match. However, the match didn't start at the designated time.

"I'm sorry people; we're having a little trouble in the trainer waiting room and will be starting in just a minute."

After hearing this, I had a feeling. I made my way to the trainer waiting room and walked in. It was just as I had thought.

"What do you mean you won't battle?!" Kaleen was yelling at her Pokémon. Meganium, Pidgeot, and Scizor all turned their heads from her in attitude. "I am your trainer and you will do as I say!"

"If you can't get your Pokémon to battle soon we will have to disqualify you," a referee was telling her, standing on the sideline of the argument.

"Come on guys! If we don't battle we can't win!"

"I don't think that's going to work Kaleen," I cut her off. She turned and threw a vicious look at me.

"What are you doing here?" she asked angrily. "Get out!"

"Not going to happen," I said smugly. "Riolu, do you mind?"

Riolu hopped off my shoulder and walked over to Kaleen's Pokémon. They began talking and agreed upon something. Riolu pointed his palm in the direction of Kaleen and, suddenly, Kaleen made an expression that looked like she had just gotten hit by a truck.

"Congratulations, you've just had your first Aura Message. Would you like me to decipher what you saw?" Kaleen looked at me with a look of fear mixed with an overwhelming regret.

"You all… you won't fight because…" she turned to her Pokémon and started to speak quietly. "You won't fight because of the way I treated the other Pokémon." Kaleen's Pokémon nodded. She cleared her throat and released her other Pokémon. They looked down and seemed to be completely depressed. "I… have to apologize. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did. You gave it your all and I didn't think it was good enough because of my obsession with winning."

Kaleen's Pokémon started looking a little more chipper. They nodded to each other and tackled her in forgiveness. Kaleen started laughing as tears poured from her eyes. She looked over to Riolu and me and mouthed the words "thank you."

"Well, what are you waiting for? You've got a match to win! Get a move on!" I cheered as she stood up, now more determined then ever.

"Right! Let's do this guys!" Kaleen and her Pokémon all cheered for victory.

I made my way back to my seat to see Kaleen and her opponent, Haley, facing each other.

"This match will now begin!" the referee yelled.

Both Kaleen and Haley released their first Pokémon. Kaleen released Scizor and Haley released…


End file.
